2.5: Natural disruptions to ecosystems

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4 Terms

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Disturbance

An event, caused by physical, chemical, or biological agents, resulting in changes in population size or community composition.

  • Natural examples: hurricanes, ice storms, tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and forest fires

  • Anthropogenic examples: human settlements, agriculture, water or pollution, deforestation, mining, climate change

<p><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span>An event, caused by physical, chemical, or biological agents, resulting in changes in population size or community composition.</span></span></p><ul><li><p><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span>Natural examples: hurricanes, ice storms, tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and forest fires</span></span></p></li><li><p><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span>Anthropogenic examples: human settlements, agriculture, water or pollution, deforestation, mining, climate change</span></span></p></li></ul><p></p>
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Resistance

A measure of how much a disturbance can affect flows of energy and matter in an ecosystem.

  • If a disturbance decreases one population, but allows another to flourish so that NPP remains the same, the ecosystem has high resistance.

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Resilience

The rate at which an ecosystem returns to its original state after a disturbance.

  • If an ecosystem is damaged by an event (such as drought), but returns to its original state the following year it is highly resilient.

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Intermediate disturbance hypothesis

The hypothesis that ecosystems experiencing intermediate levels of disturbance are more diverse than those with high or low disturbance levels

  • Some disturbance is natural and may be necessary for diversity

  • Frequent disturbance could lead to complete loss of populations and allows fast-growing species to dominate

  • Infrequent disturbance allows competitive species to dominate

<p><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span>The hypothesis that ecosystems experiencing intermediate levels of disturbance are more diverse than those with high or low disturbance levels</span></span></p><ul><li><p><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span>Some disturbance is natural and may be necessary for diversity</span></span></p></li><li><p><span style="background-color: transparent;"><strong><span>Frequent disturbance could lead to complete loss of populations and allows fast-growing species to dominate</span></strong></span></p></li><li><p><span style="background-color: transparent;"><strong><span>Infrequent disturbance allows competitive species to dominate</span></strong></span></p></li></ul><p></p>