Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis in Ecology: A Literature Review

The intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH) suggests that the peak of species diversity occurs at intermediate-scale disturbances. The IDH received criticisms because many studies have shown that the relationship between disturbances and species diversity is generally not unimodal. We searched Web of Science for articles on IDH to study the applications of the hypothesis in animal and plant studies. We classified found articles into those which presented evidence in favour and against the IDH. Furthermore, we analysed the effects of article age and impact factor of the journal in which it was published on the number of citation this article received. We found that most arguments against the IDH were found in papers on aquatic ecology and in papers published in journals with higher impact factors. Those articles were also cited more often than those presenting evidence in support of the IDH. We thus can conclude that the IDH seems to be less supported in newer papers and particularly in those in the field of aquatic ecology.