Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis

From Weekly I/O#72


Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis: Biodiversity is highest in ecosystems where the level of disturbance is neither too low nor too high.

Book: Smarter Faster Better

The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis (IDH) is an ecological theory that says that the most diverse ecosystems are those that experience moderate levels of disturbance. In other words, biodiversity is highest in ecosystems when changes in environmental conditions, such as fires, floods, and windstorms, happen neither too rarely nor too frequently.

Too little disturbance allows dominant species to outcompete others, reducing diversity, while too much disturbance makes the environment too unstable for most species to survive, also leading to reduced diversity. At intermediate levels of disturbance, however, no single species can dominate, allowing a greater variety of species to coexist.

This hypothesis reminds me that [what we need for mental health is not a tensionless state but a certain degree of tension between what one is and what one should become](What we need for mental health is not a tensionless state but a certain degree of tension between what one is and what one should become). It seems like we can apply IDH to mental health as well.


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