Disturbance ecology: a science needing attention.

Disturbance can be divided into natural and human disturbances.Disturbance can occur anywhere and anytime by any ways.Effects of disturbance ranges from minor to catastrophic.From a social and economic perspective,disturbance is always viewed as disaster.However,its ecological significance is often ignored.It is important to study disturbance ecology,particularly under the climate change impact and intensification of human intervention.In this paper,the concept and key characteristics of disturbance are introduced and detailed discussion on difference between human disturbance and natural disturbance,and the ecological role of disturbance are presented.In addition,the paper describes how we can emulate natural disturbance and how we quantify disturbance.