Due to moderate disturbance, habitats are opened up for less competitive species thus increasing the diversity of a community.
What are the factors affecting diversity?
Diversity is the variation in different life forms within a community, ecosystem or biome. Moderate disturbances result in loss of number of competitive species thus opening up habitatfor less competitive species.
According to intermediate species diversity, moderate disturbances increase the diversity of an area by maintaining the numbers of both more competitive and less competitive species.
When disturbance is low, more competitive species dominate the community leading to loss of less competitive ones.
When disturbance is high like deforestation, forest fires, it can result in loss of all species.
Thus at moderate disturbances, diversity is maximum because species at all ecosystem levels can coexist.