Diversity–disturbance relationships: frequency and intensity interact
- Hall, Alex R. Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland
- Miller, Adam D. Department of Biology, 208 Mueller Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Leggett, Helen C. Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, Penryn TR10 9EZ, UK
- Roxburgh, Stephen H. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Ecosystem Sciences and Sustainable Agriculture Flagship, Box 284, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia
- Buckling, Angus Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, Penryn TR10 9EZ, UK
- Shea, Katriona Department of Biology, 208 Mueller Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
- 2012-5-23
Published in:
- Biology Letters. - The Royal Society. - 2012, vol. 8, no. 5, p. 768-771
English
An influential ecological theory, the intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH), predicts that intermediate levels of disturbance will maximize species diversity. Empirical studies, however, have described a wide variety of diversity–disturbance relationships (DDRs). Using experimental populations of microbes, we show that the form of the DDR depends on an interaction between disturbance frequency and intensity. We find that diversity shows a monotonically increasing, unimodal or flat relationship with disturbance, depending on the values of the disturbance aspects considered. These results confirm recent theoretical predictions, and potentially reconcile the conflicting body of empirical evidence on DDRs.
- Language
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- English
- Open access status
- bronze
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0282
- ISSN 1744-9561
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/275139
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