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Related Concept Videos

Ecological Disturbance02:26

Ecological Disturbance

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An ecological disturbance is a temporary disruption in the environment resulting from abiotic, biotic, or anthropogenic factors, causing a pronounced change in an ecosystem. The impact of an ecological disturbance, which can depend on its intensity, frequency, and spatial distribution, plays a significant role in shaping the species diversity within the ecosystem.
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Ecological succession is influenced by the processes of facilitation, inhibition, and toleration. Facilitation occurs when early successional species create more favorable ecological conditions for subsequent species, such as enhanced nutrient, water, or light availability. In contrast, inhibition happens when early successional species create unfavorable ecological conditions for potential successive species, such as limiting resource availability. In some cases, later successional species...
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Measures of species biodiversity, such as richness (i.e., the number of species present) and evenness (i.e., their relative abundance), describe an ecological community’s structure. Many factors affect community structure, including abiotic factors (e.g., sunlight and nutrients), disturbances (e.g., fire or flood), species interactions (e.g., predation or competition), and chance events (e.g., foreign species invasion). Certain species—such as keystone species—also play a...
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Quantifying disturbance effects on ecosystem services in a changing climate.

Laura E Dee1, Steve J Miller2, Kate J Helmstedt3

  • 1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA. laura.dee@colorado.edu.

Nature Ecology & Evolution
|March 5, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Disturbances increasingly threaten ecosystem services due to climate change. A new trait-based approach quantifies these impacts, revealing limitations of traditional ecological metrics for assessing risks to nature's contributions.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Environmental Science
  • Conservation Biology

Background:

  • Disturbances like fires and hurricanes significantly alter ecosystems and threaten nature's contributions to people (ecosystem services).
  • Climate change exacerbates disturbance intensity, increasing risks to vital ecosystem services.
  • Existing assessment methods often fail to capture the full ecological and economic consequences of disturbances.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop a flexible, functional trait-based approach for quantifying the ecological, ecosystem service, and economic impacts of disturbance regimes.
  • To integrate insights from disturbance ecology and ecosystem service valuation, addressing limitations of isolated perspectives.
  • To provide a framework for assessing risks to ecosystem services under intensifying disturbances across diverse social-ecological systems.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a trait-based approach to link disturbance characteristics with ecological responses and ecosystem service provision.
  • Quantified impacts on timber and recreation from windstorms in a midlatitude forest.
  • Illustrated the approach for crop pollination, flood mitigation, and cultural values in coral reef systems.

Main Results:

  • Traditional ecological metrics (compositional and biomass stability) are insufficient for predicting ecosystem service impacts from disturbances.
  • Significant potential losses to timber and recreational services were predicted under historical and future disturbance scenarios.
  • The trait-based approach offers a more comprehensive assessment of disturbance impacts on ecosystem services.

Conclusions:

  • A functional trait-based framework is crucial for accurately assessing the impacts of intensifying disturbances on ecosystem services.
  • This approach highlights the inadequacy of conventional ecological metrics in predicting service losses.
  • The study provides tools and a roadmap for applying this assessment method to various social-ecological systems facing climate change.