A framework for quantifying the relationship between intensity and severity of impact of disturbance across types of events and species

Understanding the impacts of natural disturbances on wildlife populations is a central task for ecologists; in general, the severity of impact of a disturbance (e.g., the resulting degree of population decline) is likely to depend primarily on the disturbance intensity (i.e., strength of forcing), type of disturbance, and species vulnerability. However, differences among disturbance events in the physical units of forcing and interspecific...