Disturbance and diversity at two spatial scales.

ABSTRACT: The spatial scale of disturbance is a factor potentially influencing the relationship between disturbance and diversity. There has been discussion on whether disturbances that affect local communities and create a mosaic of patches in different successional stages have the same effect on diversity as regional disturbances that affect the whole landscape. In a microcosm experiment with metacommunities of aquatic protists, we compared the effect of local and regional disturbances on the disturbance-diversity relationship. Local disturbances destroyed entire local communities of the metacommunity and required reimmigration from neighboring communities, while regional disturbances affected the whole metacommunity but left part of each local community intact. Both disturbance types led to a neg

SUBMITTER: Limberger R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3277704 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature