Disturbed

Disturbed

	With reference to ecological conditions (habitats for plants), soil that is "disturbed" is soil that has been impacted by unusual or unnatural occurrences. Natural disturbance may include flooding, landslides, diseases that destroy predominant tree species, or in our contemporary world, climate change. However, we tend to reserve the use of the term "disturbed" to refer primarily to the impacts of human activity on growing conditions in given places. Such impacts may result from logging, home building, agriculture, road building and the introduction of non-native and invasive species, or combinations of the above. Mowed lawns, pasture land, backyard gardens and vacant building lots are types of human-caused disturbance.