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opencc-by-4.0Oct 2022View details →

Disturbed Forest on Sandy Coastal Plain, Saquarema/RJ - Datasets and Phytosociological analyses

Os dados brutos foram coletados em 2019 por Bárbara de Pinho Agapito, Cyl Farney Catarino de Sá & Dorothy Sue Dunn de Araujo  em área perturbada de Floresta de Restinga em Saquarema/RJ. Um grande distúrbio ocorreu entre 1965/1970 com corte e queima da floresta para abertura de pastagem e cultivos temporários. O solo arenoso, o fogo recorrente e a disseminação de gramíneas invasoras agressivas tem retardado a regeneração da floresta cuja matriz é adjacente. Parcelas de 5 x 5 m foram instaladas nessa área perturbada para análise da regeneração avaliando ocorrência, abundância e persistência das espécies lenhosas. Foram medidos todos os indivíduos com DAS ≥ 0,1 cm , assim como suas alturas foram tomadas. A análise fitossociológica também está disponível com todos os parâmetros absolutos e relativos, calculados através do Excel.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2022View details →

Data: Acoustic disturbance in blue mussels: sound-induced valve closure varies with pulse train speed but does not affect phytoplankton clearance rate

Data abstract: Data on mussels' valve gape behaviour and phytoplankton clearance during sound exposure trials. We provide the raw data, processed data, scripts to process the raw data, make plots, and run the statistics.   Paper abstract: Anthropogenic sound has increasingly become part of the marine soundscape and may negatively affect animals across all taxa. Invertebrates, including bivalves, received limited attention even though they make up a significant part of the marine biomass and are very important for higher trophic levels. Behavioural studies are critical to evaluate individual and potentially population-level impact of noise and can be used to compare the effects of different sounds. In the current study, we examined the effect of impulsive sounds with different pulse rates on the valve gape behaviour and phytoplankton clearance rate of blue mussels (Mytilus spp.). We monitored the mussels’ valve gape using an electromagnetic valve gape monitor, and their clearance rate using spectrophotometry of phytoplankton densities in the water. We found that the mussels’ valve gape was positively correlated with their clearance rate, but the sound exposure did not significantly affect the clearance rate or reduce the valve gape of the mussels. They did close their valves upon the onset of a pulse train, but the majority of the individuals recovered to pre-exposure valve gape levels during the exposure. Individuals that were exposed to faster pulse trains returned to their baseline valve gape faster. Our results show that different sound exposures can affect animals differently, which should be taken into account for noise pollution impact assessments and mitigation measures.   Paper reference: Hubert, J., Moens, R., Witbaard, R., Slabbekoorn, H. (2022). Acoustic disturbance in blue mussels: sound-induced valve closure varies with pulse train speed but does not affect phytoplankton clearance rate. ICES Journal of Marine Science. DOI: 10.1093/icesjms/fsac193.

opencc-by-4.0Nov 2022View details →

RESONATE case study disturbance information

Disturbance information for the RESONATE case studies: <a href="https://efi.int/projects/resonate">https://efi.int/projects/resonate</a>. The data was compiled from existing disturbance and agent attribution data that was extended to the year 2020 within the RESONATE project. Folter 'agent classification': Raster layers with four values: 0=no disturbance, 1=harvest, 2=bark beetle/storm, 3=fire Folder 'disturbance_summaries': Rummary tables with year, agent, disturbance area (ha) and disturbance rate (percent of forest area) Folder 'disturbances': Raster layers with disturbance year (0=no disturbance) Folder 'forest_masks': Forest makes (1=no forest/2=forest) to calculate disturbance ratesF older 'outlines': Outlines of case studies as vector files  All spatial files are in EPSG:3035.

opencc-zeroNov 2022View details →

Living on the edge: Predicting invertebrate richness and rarity in disturbance-prone aquatic–terrestrial ecosystems

1. Temporal fluctuations in water levels cause the spatial extent of wet and dry habitats to vary in aquatic–terrestrial riverine ecosystems, complicating their biomonitoring. As such, biomonitoring efforts may fail to characterise the species that inhabit such habitats, hampering assessments of their biodiversity and implementation of evidence-informed management strategies. 2. Relationships between the dynamic characteristics of aquatic-terrestrial habitats and their communities are well known. Thus, habitat characteristics may enable estimation of faunal assemblage characteristics such as taxonomic richness, regardless of in-channel conditions. 3. We investigated whether indicators summarising habitat survey data can predict two metrics representing terrestrial invertebrate assemblages (e.g. taxa richness) in two aquatic–terrestrial habitats: exposed riverine sediments and dry temporary streams. We also compared the performance of unimetric and multimetric habitat indicators in making predictions. 4. In exposed riverine sediments, >88% of predictions were correlated with observed taxa richness and an index of conservation status. Values predicted by exposed riverine sediment samples were correlated with those observed in temporary stream channels with comparable riparian (i.e. largely agricultural) land use, but not those observed in channels with contrasting (i.e. more urban) land use. 5. Unimetric habitat indicators performed similarly to more complex multimetric indicators, with each explaining ≤6% of the variability in taxa richness and the index of conservation status. The different spatial scales at which invertebrates respond to habitat conditions and at which indicators record habitat conditions, and a more comprehensive training dataset that incorporates a full range of habitat conditions (i.e. land use), may improve future predictions. 6. We demonstrate that invertebrate assemblage characteristics can be predicted regardless of in-channel conditions. Agreement between exposed riverine sediment predictions and temporary stream observations suggests that these predictions are transferable among a range of aquatic–terrestrial habitat types, and could thus be widely applied to aid conservation of riverine biodiversity in dynamic aquatic–terrestrial ecosystems.

opencc-zeroNov 2022View details →

Disturbance-mediated hybridization in black-capped and mountain chickadees

Human habitat disturbances can promote hybridization between closely related, but typically reproductively isolated, species. We explored whether human habitat disturbances are related to hybridization between two closely related songbirds, black-capped, and mountain chickadees, using both genomic and citizen science datasets. First, we genotyped 409 individuals from across both species' ranges using reduced-representation genome sequencing and compared measures of genetic admixture to a composite measure of human landscape disturbance. Then, using eBird observations, we compared human landscape disturbance values for sites where phenotypically diagnosed hybrids were observed to locations where either parental species was observed to determine whether hybrid chickadees are reported in more disturbed areas. We found that hybridization between black-capped and mountain chickadees positively correlates with human habitat disturbances. From genomic data, we found that 1) hybrid index significantly increased with habitat disturbance, 2) more hybrids were sampled in disturbed habitats, 3) mean hybrid indexes were higher in disturbed habitats versus wild habitats, and 4) hybrids were detected in habitats with significantly higher disturbance values than parentals. Using eBird data, we found that both hybrid and black-capped chickadees were significantly more disturbance-associated than mountain chickadees. Surprisingly, we found that nearly every black-capped chickadee we sampled contained some proportion of hybrid ancestry, while we detected very few mountain chickadee backcrosses. Our results highlight that hybridization between black-capped and mountain chickadees is widespread, but initial hybridization is rare (few F1s were detected). We conclude that human habitat disturbances can erode pre-zygotic reproductive barriers between chickadees and that post-zygotic isolation is incomplete. Understanding what becomes of recently hybridizing species following large-scale habitat disturbances is a new, but pressing, consideration for successfully preserving genetic biodiversity in a rapidly changing world.

opencc-by-4.0Mar 2022View details →

Dataset for the pubblication "Impact of DC Transient Disturbances on Harmonic Performance of Voltage Transformers for AC Railway Applications"

This is the dataset for the paper published: Letizia, P.S.; Signorino, D.; Crotti, G. Impact of DC Transient Disturbances on Harmonic Performance of Voltage Transformers for AC Railway Applications. Sensors 2022, 22, 2270. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22062270

opencc-zeroDec 2022View details →

Similar vegetation-geomorphic disturbance feedbacks shape unstable glacier forelands across mountain regions

Glacier forelands are among the most rapidly changing landscapes on Earth. Stable ground is rare as geomorphic processes move sediments across large areas of glacier forelands for decades to centuries following glacier retreat. Yet, most ecological studies sample exclusively on stable terrain to fulfil chronosequence criteria, thus missing potential feedbacks between geomorphic disturbances and vegetation colonization. By influencing vegetation and soil development, such vegetation-geomorphic disturbance feedbacks could be crucial to understand glacier foreland ecosystem development in a changing climate. We surveyed vegetation and environmental properties, including geomorphic disturbance intensities, in 105 plots located on both stable and unstable moraine terrain in two geomorphologically active glacier forelands in New Zealand and Switzerland. Our plot data showed that geomorphic disturbance intensities changed permanently from high/moderate to low/stable when vegetation reached cover values around 40%. Around this cover value, species with response and effect traits adapted to geomorphic disturbances dominated. This suggests that such species can act as 'biogeomorphic' ecosystem engineers that stabilize ground through positive feedback loops. Across floristic regions, biogeomorphic ecosystem engineer traits creating ground stabilization, such as mat growth and association with mycorrhiza, are remarkably similar. Non-metric multidimensional scaling revealed a linked sequence of decreasing geomorphic disturbance intensities and changing species composition from pioneer to late successional species. We interpret this linked geomorphic disturbance-vegetation succession sequence as 'biogeomorphic succession', a common successional pathway in unstable river and coastal ecosystems across the world. Soil and vegetation development were related to this sequence, and only advanced once biogeomorphic ecosystem engineer species covered 40–45% of a plot, indicating a crucial role of biogeomorphic ecosystem engineer stabilization. Different topoclimatic conditions could explain variance in biogeomorphic succession timescales and ecosystem engineer root traits between the glacier forelands. As glacier foreland ground is widely unstable, we propose to consider glacier forelands as 'biogeomorphic ecosystems' in which ecosystem structure and function are shaped by geomorphic disturbances and their feedbacks with adapted plant species, similar to rivers and coasts.

opencc-zeroDec 2022View details →

Biodiversity influences the effects of oil disturbance on coastal ecosystems

Biodiversity can enhance the response of ecosystems to disturbance. However, whether diversity can reduce the ecological effect of human-induced novel and extreme disturbances is unclear. In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon (DwH) platform exploded, allowing an uncontrolled release of crude oil into the northern Gulf of Mexico. Initial surveys following the spill found that ecological impacts on coastal ecosystems varied greatly across habitat-type and trophic group; however, to date, few studies have tested the influence of local biodiversity on these responses. We used a meta-analytic approach to synthesize the results of 5 mesocosm studies that included 10 independent oil experiments and 5 independent oil + dispersant experiments. We tested whether biodiversity increased the resistance and/or resilience of coastal ecosystems to oil disturbance, and whether a biodiversity effect depended on the type of diversity present (taxonomic or genetic) and/or the response type measured (population, community or ecosystem-level). We found that diversity can influence the effects of oiling, but the direction and magnitude of this diversity effect varied. Diversity reduced the negative impact of oiling for within-trophic-level responses, and tended to be stronger for taxonomic than genetic diversity. Further, diversity effects were largely driven by the presence of highly resistant or quick to recover taxa and genotypes, consistent with the insurance hypothesis. However, we found no effect of diversity on the response to the combination of oil and dispersant exposure. We conclude that areas of low biodiversity may be particularly vulnerable to future oil disturbances and provide insight into the benefit of incorporating multiple measures of diversity in restoration projects and management decisions.

Data from: Decreased cerebrospinal fluid orexin levels not associated with clinical sleep disturbance in Parkinson's disease: A retrospective study

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) often suffer from sleep disturbances, including excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD). These symptoms are also experienced by patients with narcolepsy, which is characterized by orexin neuronal loss. In PD, a decrease in orexin neurons is observed pathologically, but the association between sleep disturbance in PD and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) orexin levels is still unclear. This study aimed to clarify the role of orexin as a biomarker in patients with PD. CSF samples were obtained from a previous cohort study conducted between 2015 and 2020. We cross-sectionally and longitudinally examined the association between CSF orexin levels, sleep, and clinical characteristics. We analyzed 78 CSF samples from 58 patients with PD and 21 samples from controls. CSF orexin levels in patients with PD (median = 272.0 [interquartile range = 221.7–334.5] pg/mL) were lower than those in controls (352.2 [296.2–399.5] pg/mL, p = 0.007). There were no significant differences in CSF orexin levels according to EDS, RBD, or the use of dopamine agonists. Moreover, no significant correlation was observed between CSF orexin levels and clinical characteristics by multiple linear regression analysis. Furthermore, the longitudinal changes in orexin levels were also not correlated with clinical characteristics. This study showed decreased CSF orexin levels in patients with PD, but these levels did not show any correlation with any clinical characteristics. Our results suggest the limited efficacy of CSF orexin levels as a biomarker for PD, and that sleep disturbances may also be affected by dysfunction of the nervous system other than orexin, or by dopaminergic treatments in PD. Understanding the reciprocal role of orexin among other neurotransmitters may provide a better treatment strategy for sleep disturbance in patients with PD.

Disturbing the spatial structure of biofilms affects the expression of agr regulated virulence factors in Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus uses quorum sensing and nutrient availability to control the expression of agr-regulated virulence factors. Quorum sensing is mediated by autoinducing peptide (AIP), which at high concentration, reduces expression of surface attachment proteins (coa, fnbpA), and increases expression of exotoxins (lukS) and proteases (splA). Nutrient availability can be sensed through the saeS/saeR system. Low nutrients increase expression of saeR, which augments expression of coa and fnbpA distinct from AIP. The formation of spatial structure, such as biofilms, can alter quorum sensing and nutrient acquisition. In natural environments, biofilms encounter forces that may alter their spatial structure. This may impact quorum sensing and/or nutrient acquisition, and thus affect the expression of agr-regulated virulence factors. However, this has not been studied. We show that periodically disturbing biofilms composed of S. aureus using a physical force affects the expression of agr-regulated virulence factors. In nutrient-poor environments, disturbance increased the expression of coa, fnbpA, lukS, and splA. Disturbance into a nutrient-rich environment at low or high disturbance amplitudes moderately reduced expression of coa and fnbpA but increased expression of lukS and splA. Interestingly, at an intermediate amplitude, the overall expression of agr-regulated virulence factors was the lowest; expression of lukS and splA remained unchanged relative to an undisturbed biofilm while expression of coa and fnbpA significantly decreased. We hypothesize that these changes are a result of disturbance-driven changes in access to AIP and nutrients. Our results may allow the identification of environments where virulence is enhanced, or reduced, owing to disturbance.

opencc-by-4.0Jan 2023View details →

Wildlife response to disturbances in agent-based models: synthesis on current development and challenges (Systematic Review)

This dataset was obtained from a systematic screening of 124 articles presenting agent-based models of wildlife response to disturbances. It is part of a manuscript for submission to the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution. The manuscript is entitled: Wildlife response to disturbances in agent-based models: synthesis on current development and challenges.

Long-term responses to large-scale disturbances: Spatiotemporal variation in gastropod populations and communities

The Anthropocene is characterized by complex, primarily human-generated, disturbance regimes that include combinations of long-term press (e.g. climate change, pollution) and episodic pulse (e.g. cyclonic storms, floods, wildfires, land use change) disturbances. Within any regime, disturbances occur at multiple spatial and temporal scales, creating complex and varied interactions that influence spatiotemporal dynamics in the abundance, distribution, and biodiversity of organisms. Moreover, responses to disturbance are context-dependent, with the legacies of previous disturbances affecting responses to ensuing perturbations. We use three decades of annual data to evaluate the effects of repeated pulse disturbances and global warming on gastropod populations and communities in Puerto Rico at multiple spatial scales. More specifically, we quantify (1) the relative importance of large-scale and small-scale aspects of disturbance on variation in abundance, biodiversity, and species composition; and (2) the spatial scales at which populations and communities integrate information in the spatially heterogenous environments created by disturbances. Gastropods do not exhibit consistent decreases in abundance or biodiversity in association with global warming: abundance for many species has increased over time and species richness does not evince a temporal trend. Nonetheless, gastropods are sensitive to hurricane severity, spatial environmental variation, and successional trajectories of the flora. In addition, they exhibit context-dependent (i.e. legacy effects) responses that are scale-dependent. The Puerto Rican biota has evolved in a disturbance-mediated system. This historical exposure to repeated, severe hurricane-induced disturbances has imbued the biota with high resistance and resilience to the current disturbance regime, resulting in an ability to persist or thrive under current environmental conditions. Nonetheless, these ecosystems may yet be threatened by worsening direct and indirect effects of climate change. In particular, more frequent and severe hurricanes may prevent the establishment of closed-canopy forests, negatively impacting populations and communities that rely on these habitats.

Wildfire disturbance reveals evidence of ecosystem resilience and precariousness in a forest-grassland mosaic

Forest and grassland ecosystems are sometimes located adjacently within the same climate. In interior British Columbia, Canada, there are complex forest-grassland mosaics within the Interior Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone. Historically, both grassland and forest ecosystems experienced high-frequency, low-severity fire regimes. Since European settlement and introduction of livestock grazing and fire exclusion, trees have encroached on grasslands, and tree densities in forests have increased. In this study, we characterize plant communities and near-surface soil moisture in forest and grassland sites, and in historical grassland sites affected by tree encroachment. We hypothesized that spatial and temporal patterns of near-surface soil moisture are reflected in above-ground plant community composition and structure. After initial sampling of soil moisture and plant communities, the study area was burned in a wildfire. Applying a multifactorial approach to comparing adjacent grassland and forest sites, we treated the wildfire event as a natural experiment, sampling post-wildfire plant species composition and soil moisture, and measuring the severity and spatial heterogeneity of surface burn conditions. Evidence supports the concept of mutually exclusive fire-reinforced bi-stable grassland and forest states, with greater spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture and burn severity in forests, and highly uniform patterns of soil moisture, vegetation, and burn severity in grasslands. Areas of forest encroachment on grasslands had understory plant communities dominated by exotic species, while restored grasslands had native bunchgrass cover like typical grasslands of the region. Additionally, there was post-wildfire divergence of forest- and grassland- associated plant communities. Viewed through a resilience theory conceptual framework, we suggest that ecosystem legacies are reinforcing post-wildfire ecosystem identity and associated native plant communities. External factors - particularly past heavy livestock grazing and fire suppression - have caused ecosystem precariousness that can be addressed with management actions.

opencc-by-4.0Feb 2023View details →

Model outputs and species-level data for "Functional traits and climate drive interspecific differences in disturbance-induced tree mortality"

This repository is divided in three sub-directories:  <ul> <li>sensitivity contains the posterior of each parameter estimated by the bayesian mortality model in a rdata file. This file was generated by the script https://github.com/jbarrere3/SalvageModel/tree/withFinland</li> <li>climate contains for each tree species the climatic variables (mean annual temperature, minimum annual temperature and annual precipitation) extracted from CHELSA and the disturbance-related climatic indices (Fire Weather Index, Snow Water Equivalent and Gust Wind Speed)</li> <li>traits contains the traits calculated directly with NFI data (bark thickness, height to dbh ratio, maximum growth), and a text file with the Species and Trait ID to request to TRY database. </li> </ul> The content of this repository can be used to reproduce the analyses of the paper, with the script stored in  in https://github.com/jbarrere3/DisturbancePaper Edit (19/09/2023): A minor coding error was found in the pre-formatted data of the paper, which did not affect the main results but led to minor change in the value of the posterior estimates. An updated version of the posterior estimates of this dataset was made available at https://zenodo.org/record/8358921.

opencc-zeroFeb 2023View details →

Data for: Local conditions matter: Minimal and variable effects of soil disturbance on microbial communities and functions in European vineyards

Soil tillage or herbicide applications are commonly used in agriculture for weed control. These measures may also represent a disturbance for soil microbial communities and their functions. However, the generality of response patterns of microbial communities and functions to disturbance have rarely been studied at large geographical scales. We investigated how a soil disturbance gradient (low, intermediate, high), realized by either tillage or herbicide application, affects diversity and composition of soil bacterial and fungal communities as well as soil functions in vineyards across five European countries. Microbial alpha-diversity metrics responded to soil disturbance sporadically, but inconsistently across countries. Increasing soil disturbance changed soil microbial community composition at the European level. However, the effects of soil disturbance on the variation of microbial communities were smaller compared to the effects of location and soil covariates. Microbial respiration was consistently impaired by soil disturbance, while effects on decomposition of organic substrates were inconsistent and showed positive and negative responses depending on the respective country. Therefore, we conclude that it is difficult to extrapolate results from one locality to others because microbial communities and environmental conditions vary strongly over larger geographical scales.

opencc-zeroMar 2023View details →

Legacy effects of anthropogenic disturbances modulate dynamics in the world's coral reefs

Rapidly changing conditions alter disturbance patterns, highlighting the need to better understand how the transition from pulse disturbances to more persistent stress will impact ecosystem dynamics. We conducted a global analysis of the impacts of eleven types of disturbances on reef integrity using the rate of change of coral cover as a measure of damage. Then, we evaluated how the magnitude of the damage due to thermal stress, cyclones, and diseases varied among tropical Atlantic and Indo-Pacific reefs and whether the cumulative impact of thermal stress and cyclones was able to modulate the responses of reefs to future events. We found that reef damage largely depends on the condition of a reef before a disturbance, disturbance intensity, and biogeographic region, regardless of the type of disturbance. Changes in coral cover after thermal stress events were largely influenced by the cumulative stress of past disturbances and did not depend on disturbance intensity or initial coral cover, which suggests that an ecological memory is present within coral communities. In contrast, the effect of cyclones (and likely other physical impacts) was primarily modulated by the initial reef condition and did not appear to be influenced by previous impacts. Our findings also underscore that coral reefs can recover if stressful conditions decrease, yet the lack of action to reduce anthropogenic impacts and greenhouse gas emissions continues to trigger reef degradation. We uphold that evidence-based strategies can guide managers to make better decisions to prepare for future disturbances.

opencc-by-4.0Mar 2023View details →

Shifting cultivation and other forest disturbance drivers maps in Laos

This dataset includes maps of shifting cultivation and other forest disturbance drivers in Laos. Annual map classes (numbers are class values): 1. Forest,   2. Plantation,   3. Non-forest,    4. Subtle disturbances  5. Severe drought,   6. New Plantation,   7. Deforestation,  8. Shifting cultivation The aggregate map classes (numbers are class values): 1.Stable forest, 2,Non-forest, 3.Shifting cultivation, 4.Deforestation, 5.New plantation Please cite the two references if you use the datasets: Chen, S., Woodcock, C. E., Saphangthong, T., & Olofsson, P. (2023). Satellite data reveals a recent increase in shifting cultivation and associated carbon emissions in Laos. Environmental Research Letters, 18(11), 114012. Chen, S., Olofsson, P., Saphangthong, T., & Woodcock, C. E. (2023). Monitoring shifting cultivation in Laos with Landsat time series. Remote Sensing of Environment, 288, 113507. Please visit https://github.com/shijuanchen/shift_cult and https://sites.google.com/view/shijuanchen/research/shift_cult for Google Earth Engine applications, visualization and more datasets.

opencc-by-4.0Apr 2023View details →

Data and R codes from: Effects of human disturbance on risk-taking behavior in painted turtles

Animals are exposed to high levels of anthropogenic disturbance, which has profound consequences for population persistence. Individuals can adjust their behavior plastically when faced with perturbations in their environment and may show consistent differences in the way they perceive and respond to risky situations. Over time, this variability among individuals in response to risk can affect the dynamics of populations exposed to human disturbance. Thus, understanding how animals cope behaviorally with human disturbance is important, especially for species vulnerable to human perturbations, such as turtles. In this context, we evaluated whether risk-taking behaviors are consistent within individual painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) and assessed how these behaviors are related to the extent of human disturbance along the Rideau Canal, Ontario, Canada. Specifically, we conducted repeated measurements of the number of active defensive behaviors used during handling and the time taken to escape a floating platform for a total of 730 painted turtles (1117 observations) from 22 sites varying in human disturbance along the canal. We also quantified the emergence of the turtles from the water after escaping the platform. First, individual painted turtles showed consistent differences in all risk-taking behaviors. Second, painted turtles in areas with high boat activity displayed more active defensive behaviors, while turtles from sites in proximity to more houses with access to the canal used fewer. Our study highlights the importance of studying animal behavior to better understand the impact of human activities on animal populations.

opencc-zeroApr 2023View details →

Experimental disturbance and productivity gradients drive community diversity in aquatic mesocosms

Combined effects of disturbance and productivity on ecological diversity have been considered for decades as the dynamic equilibrium model (DEM) but are rarely tested together. Instead, most studies focus on either the intermediate disturbance hypothesis or sometimes the intermediate productivity hypothesis. In addition, most analyses of disturbance and productivity effects have relied on nonexperimental patterns, limited sample sizes, inaccurate proxies for productivity, and/or simple measures of diversity. The DEM operates at regional and local scales; here, we conducted a year‐long experiment at local scales using submersed aquatic vegetation in outdoor mesocosms with a factorial combination of physical disturbance and productivity treatments. We evaluated diversity in several ways, directly measured productivity, and compared alternative hypotheses using model selection. The DEM was supported for effective diversity; both productivity and disturbance effects were clear, though productivity effects were stronger. Other diversity measures for the simple communities in the mesocosms did not clearly reflect treatments. The DEM is a valuable general framework for understanding disturbance and productivity effects on ecological systems and is made more general by minor conceptual adjustments here.