Whether an event is a disturbance depends on the receiving organism

Evidence

The seasonal change in water availability, regardless of the magnitude in any year, is a disturbance to varying segments of the resident vertebrate community and empha­ sizes the importance of defining disturbances from the relative perspective of the receiving organism. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1030

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precise definitional point: disturbance is defined relative to the perceiving organism’s perspective, not by the event itself.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s earlier ch15 claim that a disturbance is defined by the community change it produces, and parallels ch1’s explicit-state dependence of ‘perturbation’. — connects to: A disturbance is defined by the community change it produces, not by the agent. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 568; Disturbance predictions must be mechanistic, incorporating history and context — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 2242; System structure determines which disturbances matter and their impact thresholds — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 2256

Broader Connections

• System structure determines which disturbances matter and their impact thresholds #corroborates (0.85) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 2256
• Disturbance predictions must be mechanistic, incorporating history and context #expands (0.75) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 2242