Ecological indicator

Ecological indicators are used to communicate information about ecosystems and the impact human activity has on ecosystems to groups such as the public or government policy makers. Ecosystems are complex and ecological indicators can help describe them in simpler terms that can be understood and used by non-scientists to make management decisions. For example, the number of different beetle taxa found in a field can be used as an indicator of biodiversity.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Many different types of indicators have been developed. They can be used to reflect a variety of aspects of ecosystems, including biological, chemical and physical. Due to this variety, the development and selection of ecological indicators is a complex process.^[4]

Using ecological indicators is a pragmatic approach since direct documentation of changes in ecosystems as related to management measures, is cost and time intensive.^[5]^[6] For example, it would be expensive and time-consuming to count every bird, plant and animal in a newly restored wetland to see if the restoration was a success. Instead, a few indicator species can be monitored to determine the success of the restoration.

"It is difficult and often even impossible to characterize the functioning of a complex system, such as an eco-agrosystem, by means of direct measurements. The size of the system, the complexity of the interactions involved, or the difficulty and cost of the measurements needed are often crippling"^[7]

The terms ecological indicator and environmental indicator are often used interchangeably. However, ecological indicators are actually a sub-set of environmental indicators. Generally, environmental indicators provide information on pressures on the environment, environmental conditions and societal responses. Ecological indicators refer only to ecological processes; however, sustainability indicators are seen as increasingly important for managing humanity's coupled human-environmental systems.^[1]

The Marine Ecosystem

Marine ecosystem status and functioning are influenced by various anthropogenic and environmental stressors that necessitate ecosystem-based, integrative approaches to fisheries management. Ecological indicators play an important role in evaluating policy regarding the environment.^[2] A large number of ecological indicators have been documented and reported worldwide, and an increasing number of studies has been conducted to assess the properties of ecological indicators and determine how they should be selected for assisting fisheries management.^[2] We contrasted the sensitivity of indicators to fishing and primary productivity, by looking at indicators' response to directional change in fishing pressure and to directional change in primary productivity separately. For all ecosystems except the Black Sea, the Southern Catalan Sea and, to some extent, the Southeastern Australia, the cumulative importance shifts (in R2f unit) of the indicator B/C in response to fishing pressure were high even under the lowest fishing levels.^[2] It was concluded that the performance of biomass indicators for evaluating fishing impacts was low, but was high and better suited for assessing the impacts of changes in primary productivity on ecosystem status.^[2]

Human Effects

Building construction is one of the largest final consumers of environmental resources as well as one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gas and other pollution.^[3] Green building construction constitutes one of the most important elements in sustainable building requirement. Energy and global warming issues have spurred rapid development of green building construction. It is significant to get a thorough understanding of green building construction, especially for strengthening current energy and environmental policies.^[3]

Indicators contribute to evaluation of policy development by:^[8]

Providing decision-makers and the general public with relevant information on the current state and trends in the environment.
Helping decision-makers better understand cause and effect relationships between the choices and practices of businesses and policy-makers versus the environment.
Assisting to monitor and assess the effectiveness of measures taken to increase and enhance ecological goods and services.

Based on the United Nations convention to combat desertification and convention for biodiversity, indicators are planned to be built in order to evaluate the evolution of the factors. For instance, for the CCD, the Unesco-funded Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel (OSS) has created the Réseau d'Observatoires du Sahara et du Sahel (ROSELT) (website [9]^{[permanent dead link]}) as a network of cross-Saharan observatories to establish ecological indicators.^{[citation needed]}

Limitations

There are limitations and challenges to using indicators for evaluating policy programs.

For indicators to be useful for policy analysis, it is necessary to be able to use and compare indicator results on different scales (local, regional, national and international). Currently, indicators face the following spatial limitations and challenges:

Variable availability of data and information on local, regional and national scales.
Lack of methodological standards on an international scale.
Different ranking of indicators on an international scale which can result in different legal treatment.
Averaged values across a national level may hide regional and local trends.
When compiled, local indicators may be too diverse to provide a national result.^[10]

Indicators also face other limitations and challenges, such as:

Lack of reference levels, therefore it is unknown if trends in environmental change are strong or weak.
Indicator measures can overlap, causing over estimation of single parameters.
Long-term monitoring is necessary to identify long-term environmental changes.
Attention to more easily handled measurable indicators distracts from indicators less quantifiable such as aesthetics, ethics or cultural values. ^[11]

References

^ Bertollo, P. (1998). "Assessing ecosystem health in governed landscapes: A framework for developing core indicators". Ecosystem Health. 4: 33–51. doi:10.1046/j.1526-0992.1998.00069.x.
^ Girardin, P., Bockstaller, C. & Van der Werf, H. (1999). "Indicators: Tools to evaluate the environmental impacts of farming systems". Journal of Sustainable Agriculture. 13 (4): 6–21. Bibcode:1999JSusA..13d...5G. doi:10.1300/J064v13n04_03.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Kurtz, J.C., Jackson, L.E. & Fisher, W.S.. (2001). "Strategies for evaluating indicators based on guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development". Ecological Indicators. 1 (1): 49–60. Bibcode:2001EcInd...1...49K. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.522.9568. doi:10.1016/S1470-160X(01)00004-8.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Niemeijer, D. (2002). "Developing indicators for environmental policy: data-driven and theory-driven approaches examined by example". Environmental Science and Policy. 5 (2): 91–103. Bibcode:2002ESPol...5...91N. doi:10.1016/S1462-9011(02)00026-6.
^ Osinski, E.; Meier, U.; Büchs, W.; Weickel, J. & Matzdorf, B. (2003). "Application of biotic indicators for evaluation of sustainable land use – current procedures and future developments". Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. 98 (1–3): 407–421. Bibcode:2003AgEE...98..407O. doi:10.1016/S0167-8809(03)00100-2.
^ Piorr, H.P. (2003). "Environmental policy, agri-environmental indicators and landscape indicators". Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. 98 (1–3): 17–33. Bibcode:2003AgEE...98...17P. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.456.105. doi:10.1016/S0167-8809(03)00069-0.

Specific

^ Shaker, R. R. (2018). A mega-index for the Americas and its underlying sustainable development correlations. Ecological Indicators, 89, 466-479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.01.050
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Fu, Caihong; Xu, Yi; Bundy, Alida; Grüss, Arnaud; Coll, Marta; Heymans, Johanna J.; Fulton, Elizabeth A.; Shannon, Lynne; Halouani, Ghassen; Velez, Laure; Akoglu, Ekin; Lynam, Christopher P.; Shin, Yunne-Jai (October 2019). "Making ecological indicators management ready: Assessing the specificity, sensitivity, and threshold response of ecological indicators". Ecological Indicators. 105: 16–28. Bibcode:2019EcInd.105...16F. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.05.055. hdl:10261/192472.
^ ^a ^b Liu, Hongxun; Lin, Boqiang (August 2016). "Ecological indicators for green building construction". Ecological Indicators. 67: 68–77. Bibcode:2016EcInd..67...68L. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.02.024.

External links

[1] Shaker, R. R. (2018). A mega-index for the Americas and its underlying sustainable development correlations. Ecological Indicators, 89, 466-479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.01.050

[:0-2] Fu, Caihong; Xu, Yi; Bundy, Alida; Grüss, Arnaud; Coll, Marta; Heymans, Johanna J.; Fulton, Elizabeth A.; Shannon, Lynne; Halouani, Ghassen; Velez, Laure; Akoglu, Ekin; Lynam, Christopher P.; Shin, Yunne-Jai (October 2019). "Making ecological indicators management ready: Assessing the specificity, sensitivity, and threshold response of ecological indicators". Ecological Indicators. 105: 16–28. Bibcode:2019EcInd.105...16F. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.05.055. hdl:10261/192472.

[:1-3] Liu, Hongxun; Lin, Boqiang (August 2016). "Ecological indicators for green building construction". Ecological Indicators. 67: 68–77. Bibcode:2016EcInd..67...68L. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.02.024.

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Environmental science
Main fields	Atmospheric science Biogeochemistry Ecology Environmental chemistry Geosciences Hydrology Limnology Oceanography Soil science
Related fields	Biology Chemistry green Ecological economics Environmental design Environmental economics Environmental engineering Environmental health epidemiology Environmental studies Environmental humanities Environmental statistics Environmental toxicology Geodesy Physics Radioecology Sustainability science Systems ecology Urban ecology
Applications	Energy conservation Environmental technology Natural resource management Pollution control Public transport encouragement Recycling Remediation Renewable energy Road ecology Sewage treatment Urban metabolism Water purification Waste management
Lists	Degrees Journals Research institutes Glossary Environment by year
See also	Human impact on the environment Sustainability Technogaianism
Category scientists Commons Environment portal WikiProject

v t e Ecology: Modelling ecosystems: Trophic components
General	Abiotic component Abiotic stress Behaviour Biogeochemical cycle Biomass Biotic component Biotic stress Carrying capacity Competition Ecosystem Ecosystem ecology Ecosystem model Green world hypothesis Keystone species List of feeding behaviours Metabolic theory of ecology Productivity Resource Restoration
Producers	Autotrophs Chemosynthesis Chemotrophs Foundation species Kinetotrophs Mixotrophs Myco-heterotrophy Mycotroph Organotrophs Photoheterotrophs Photosynthesis Photosynthetic efficiency Phototrophs Primary nutritional groups Primary production
Consumers	Apex predator Bacterivore Carnivores Chemoorganotroph Foraging Generalist and specialist species Intraguild predation Herbivores Heterotroph Heterotrophic nutrition Insectivore Mesopredators Mesopredator release hypothesis Omnivores Optimal foraging theory Planktivore Predation Prey switching
Decomposers	Chemoorganoheterotrophy Decomposition Detritivores Detritus
Microorganisms	Archaea Bacteriophage Lithoautotroph Lithotrophy Marine Microbial cooperation Microbial ecology Microbial food web Microbial intelligence Microbial loop Microbial mat Microbial metabolism Phage ecology
Food webs	Biomagnification Ecological efficiency Ecological pyramid Energy flow Food chain Trophic level
Example webs	Lakes Rivers Soil Tritrophic interactions in plant defense Marine food webs cold seeps hydrothermal vents intertidal kelp forests North Pacific Gyre San Francisco Estuary tide pool
Processes	Ascendency Bioaccumulation Cascade effect Climax community Competitive exclusion principle Consumer–resource interactions Copiotrophs Dominance Ecological network Ecological succession Energy quality Energy systems language f-ratio Feed conversion ratio Feeding frenzy Mesotrophic soil Nutrient cycle Oligotroph Paradox of the plankton Trophic cascade Trophic mutualism Trophic state index
Defense, counter	Animal coloration Anti-predator adaptations Camouflage Deimatic behaviour Herbivore adaptations to plant defense Mimicry Plant defense against herbivory Predator avoidance in schooling fish

v t e Ecology: Modelling ecosystems: Other components
Population ecology	Abundance Allee effect Consumer-resource model Depensation Ecological yield Effective population size Intraspecific competition Logistic function Malthusian growth model Maximum sustainable yield Overpopulation Overexploitation Population cycle Population dynamics Population modeling Population size Predator–prey (Lotka–Volterra) equations Recruitment Small population size Stability Resilience Resistance Random generalized Lotka–Volterra model
Species	Biodiversity Density-dependent inhibition Ecological effects of biodiversity Ecological extinction Endemic species Flagship species Gradient analysis Indicator species Introduced species Invasive species / Native species Latitudinal gradients in species diversity Minimum viable population Neutral theory Occupancy–abundance relationship Population viability analysis Priority effect Rapoport's rule Relative abundance distribution Relative species abundance Species diversity Species homogeneity Species richness Species distribution Species–area curve Umbrella species
Species interaction	Antibiosis Biological interaction Commensalism Community ecology Ecological facilitation Interspecific competition Mutualism Parasitism Storage effect Symbiosis
Spatial ecology	Biogeography Cross-boundary subsidy Ecocline Ecotone Ecotype Disturbance Edge effects Foster's rule Habitat fragmentation Ideal free distribution Intermediate disturbance hypothesis Insular biogeography Land change modeling Landscape ecology Landscape epidemiology Landscape limnology Metapopulation Patch dynamics r/K selection theory Resource selection function Source–sink dynamics
Niche	Ecological niche Ecological trap Ecosystem engineer Environmental niche modelling Guild Habitat marine habitats Limiting similarity Niche apportionment models Niche construction Niche differentiation Ontogenetic niche shift
Other networks	Assembly rules Bateman's principle Bioluminescence Ecological collapse Ecological debt Ecological deficit Ecological energetics Ecological indicator Ecological threshold Ecosystem diversity Emergence Extinction debt Kleiber's law Liebig's law of the minimum Marginal value theorem Thorson's rule Xerosere
Other	Allometry Alternative stable state Balance of nature Biological data visualization Ecological economics Ecological footprint Ecological forecasting Ecological humanities Ecological stoichiometry Ecopath Ecosystem based fisheries Endolith Evolutionary ecology Functional ecology Industrial ecology Macroecology Microecosystem Natural environment Regime shift Sexecology Systems ecology Urban ecology Theoretical ecology
Outline of ecology

Limitations

See also

References

External links