THE INTERMEDIATE DISTURBANCE HYPOTHESIS: PATCH DYNAMICS AND MECHANISMS OF SPECIES COEXISTENCE

The intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH) has been used for several decades as an explanation for the coexistence of species in ecological communities. It is intuitively simple, but deceptively so. We show, via discussion and examples, that the IDH is not one mechanism of coexistence, but rather summarizes a set of similar phenomena that can arise from the action of several different coexistence mechanisms. These underlying mechanisms are defined by the various ways in which species differ in their response to disturbance-induced spatial and temporal variability in resources and environmental conditions. As an example, the original specification of the IDH required patchy disturbances for coexistence.…