EVALUATION AND MONITORING OF ECOSYSTEM HEALTH

The concept of ecosystem health is reviewed and its relationship with related ecological disciplines is discussed. Ecosystem health refers to the level of an ecosystem being active, maintaining its organization and autonomy over time, performing its functions normally, and being resilient to stress. The main evaluation components of ecosystem health include vigor, resilience, organization, maintenance of ecosystem services, management options, reduction of external input, damage to neighboring systems, and human health effects. The first three indicators are important and their monitoring models are provided. Based on four primary attributes of ecosystem health—structure, function, dynamics and services, a nested hierarchy that incorporates elements of each attribute at four levels of organization—gene, species-population, community-ecosystem, and landscape-region is proposed. In addition, the relationship between ecosystem health and disturbance, stability of ecosystem, ecosystem management, ecosystem sustainability, ecological rehabilitation are discussed.