Ecological Specialization and Susceptibility to Disturbance: Conjectures and Refutations

• DOI: 10.1086/339991
• Publication Date: 2002-09-24T19:53:22Z
• Authors: Diego P. Vázquez; Daniel Simberloff
• Keywords: Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis

Niche breadth of species has been hypothesized to be associated with species' responses disturbance. Disturbance is usually believed affect specialists negatively, while generalists are benefit from disturbance; we call this the "specialization‐disturbance" hypothesis. We also propose an hypothesis (the "specialization‐asymmetry‐disturbance" hypothesis) under which both specialization and asymmetry interactions would explain test these hypotheses using data a plant‐pollinator system that grazed by cattle (i.e., biological disturbance) in southern Argentina. quantified interactions, interaction partners, found no relationship between degree response tend asymmetric system; there was given its partners. However, did not variability Thus, rejected our data. Possible reasons include failure assess crucial resources, substantial direct effects disturbance, inaccurate measures specialization, difficulty detecting highly nonlinear relationships, limitations nonexperimental approach. Or, fact, may