Centre for the Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory, Pakefield Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK.
Mar Environ Res. 2010 Jun;69(5):297-308. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2009.12.001. Epub 2009 Dec 21.
Two of the best-supported theories which describe the effects of disturbance within marine benthic habitats are the organic enrichment 'Successional Model' and the 'Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis'. Underlying these models, biological mechanisms thought to drive community change include competition, facilitation, inhibition, tolerance and random colonisation. To further examine the effects of disturbance an experimental test of the effects of different types (burial, raking and organic enrichment) and intensities of disturbance on infaunal intertidal communities at two different sites with similar suites of species was carried out. The same type and frequency of disturbance, applied to the two different sites, produced different responses at the species, community and trophic group level. In models that assume a linear relationship between disturbance intensity and effect, knowledge of the intensity of any novel disturbance, combined with the original disturbance regime experienced by a community (i.e. its 'starting point'), should be sufficient to predict final community characteristics. The current results do not conform to such a linear interpretation, as at both sites the intensity of treatments did not always predict the degree of disturbance. Therefore the response to disturbance may depend on site-specific factors such as the history of prior disturbance and the inherent ecological plasticity exhibited by many benthic species. Whilst current models perform well in predicting benthic responses to gross disturbance, detecting subtler effects requires a recognition that community response may depend on the site, the species and the sources of disturbance.
有两种最能解释海洋底栖生境受扰影响的理论，分别是有机富化的“演替模型”和“中度干扰假说”。这两个模型所依据的生物学机制包括竞争、促进、抑制、耐受和随机定殖，这些机制被认为会驱动群落变化。为了进一步研究干扰的影响，在两个具有相似物种组合的不同地点，进行了一项实验，以检验不同类型（掩埋、耙集和有机富化）和强度的干扰对潮间带底栖无脊椎动物群落的影响。在这两个不同地点，相同类型和频率的干扰产生了在物种、群落和营养群水平上的不同反应。在假设干扰强度与效应之间存在线性关系的模型中，任何新干扰的强度，结合群落所经历的原始干扰模式（即其“起点”），应该足以预测最终的群落特征。目前的结果不符合这种线性解释，因为在两个地点，处理的强度并不总是能预测干扰的程度。因此，对干扰的反应可能取决于特定地点的因素，如先前干扰的历史以及许多底栖物种所表现出的内在生态可塑性。虽然当前的模型在预测底栖生物对总干扰的反应方面表现良好，但要检测更细微的影响，就需要认识到，群落的反应可能取决于地点、物种和干扰源。
