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The veld ecosystem relies on periodic fire disturbances like these to rejuvenate itself. In ecology, a disturbance is a temporary change in environmental conditions that causes a pronounced change in an ecosystem. Disturbances often act quickly and with great effect, to alter the physical structure or arrangement of biotic and abiotic elements.
Ecosystem collapse does not mean total disappearance of life from the area, but it does result in the loss of the original ecosystem's defining characteristics, typically including the ecosystem services it may have provided. Collapse of an ecosystem is effectively irreversible more often than not, and even if the reversal is possible, it tends ...
Secondary succession is the secondary ecological succession of a plant's life. As opposed to the first, primary succession, secondary succession is a process started by an event (e.g. forest fire, harvesting, hurricane, etc.) that reduces an already established ecosystem (e.g. a forest or a wheat field) to a smaller population of species, and as such secondary succession occurs on preexisting ...
Many grassland ecosystems are maintained by disturbance, such as fire and grazing by large animals, or else the process of succession will change them to forest or shrubland. In fact, it is debated whether fire should be considered disturbance at all for the North American prairie ecosystems, since it maintains, rather than disrupts, an ...
Example of human caused habitat destruction likely capable of reversing if further disturbance is halted. Uganda. Natural vegetation along this coastal shoreline in North Carolina, US, is being used to reduce the effects of shoreline erosion while providing other benefits to the natural ecosystem and the human community.
The frequency and severity of disturbance determine the way it affects ecosystem function. A major disturbance like a volcanic eruption or glacial advance and retreat leave behind soils that lack plants, animals or organic matter. Ecosystems that experience such disturbances undergo primary succession.
Forest disturbances are events that cause change in the structure and composition of a forest ecosystem, beyond the growth and death of individual organisms. Disturbances can vary in frequency and intensity, and include natural disasters such as fire, landslides, wind, volcanic eruptions, rare meteor impacts, outbreaks of insects, fungi, and other pathogens, animal-caused effects such as ...
Short-term disturbances are physical damages directly caused by the invasive pest and are measured on a time-scale of months to years. Short-term forest productivity is reduced by significant tree mortality. For example, productivity of mixed ash forests affected by emerald ash borer were measured at around 30 percent reduction after the ...