Disturbance Ecology

The approach that community ecologists use to understand patterns of biodiversity depends on whether they think that communities are full (i.e., member of communities is limited by biotic interactions such as competition and predation) or whether communities are not full. The "equilibrial approach" to understanding community structure assumes that community membership is limited by competition. Thus, to understand the number of species in a community it will be necessary to understand the number of potential distinct niches. The "non-equilibrial approach" assumes that some procese or processes (such as predation or disturbance) have limited competitive exclusion.

Disturbance Ecology

Ecological disturbances are one example of a process that can limit competitive exclusion. If a disturbance disrupts population growth of a superior competitor, then the population size of the superior competitor may not get large enough to competitively exclude other species.

Powerpoint Presentation

http://www.slideshare.net/secret/GH30nvAxRaF4P


Further Reading

1) Here is a link to a chapter entitled - The response of animals to disturbance and their roles in patch generation. that Mike Willig and I wrote for a book Ecosystems of Disturbed Ground. The first portion of this chapter talks about our view of disturbance the second discusses some of my research in Texas.

http://hydrodictyon.eeb.uconn.edu/people/willig/Willig_pdf/094.Willig&McGinley.1999.pdf

2) The Fire Ecology Factsheet- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Fire_ecology_fact_sheet


Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course a fully engaged student should be able to

- define disturbance
- list examples of disturbances
- distinguish between a disturbance and a disaster
- discuss the characteristics of a disturbance regime
- discuss some adaptations of organisms to disturbances
- discuss why disturbances are natural parts of many ecosystems
- discuss the intermediate disturbance hypothesis