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Ecological indicators are used to communicate information about
ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...
s and the impact human activity has on ecosystems to groups such as the public or
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
policy Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an organ ...
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 Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...
taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...
found in a field can be used as an
indicator Indicator may refer to: Biology * Environmental indicator of environmental health (pressures, conditions and responses) * Ecological indicator of ecosystem health (ecological processes) * Health indicator, which is used to describe the health ...
of
biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') le ...
. 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. Using ecological indicators is a pragmatic approach since direct documentation of changes in ecosystems as related to management measures, is cost and time intensive. For example, it would be expensive and time-consuming to count every bird,
plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...
and
animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...
in a newly restored
wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free ( anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
to see if the restoration was a success. Instead, a few
indicator species A bioindicator is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. The most common indicator species are animals. For example, copepods and other sma ...
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"'' The terms ecological indicator and
environmental indicator Environmental indicators are simple measures that tell us what is happening in the environment. Since the environment is very complex, indicators provide a more practical and economical way to track the state of the environment than if we attempte ...
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 Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps w ...
processes; however, sustainability indicators are seen as increasingly important for managing humanity's coupled human-environmental systems.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 Ecological indicators play an important role in evaluating policy regarding the environment. Indicators contribute to evaluation of policy development by: *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 The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
convention to combat desertification The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa (UNCCD) is a Convention to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought through ...
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 The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
-funded
Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel The Sahara and Sahel Observatory (french: Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel, OSS) is an African intergovernmental organisation established in 1992 and based in Tunis, Tunisia. Its aim is to protect the environment in Sahara and Sahel, supervise the ...
(OSS) has created the RĂ©seau d'Observatoires du Sahara et du Sahel ( ROSELT) (websit

as a network of cross-Saharan observatories to establish ecological indicators.


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. 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.


See also

*
Ecological science Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
*
Ecology movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advoc ...
*
Ecosystem valuation Ecosystem valuation is an economic process which assigns a value (either monetary, biophysical, or other) to an ecosystem and/or its ecosystem services. By quantifying, for example, the human welfare benefits of a forest to reduce flooding and erosi ...
*
Ecological yield Ecological yield is the harvestable population growth of an ecosystem. It is most commonly measured in forestry: sustainable forestry is defined as that which does not harvest more wood in a year than has grown in that year, within a given patch o ...
*
Deep ecology Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that promotes the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, and the restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with such ideas. Deep ecol ...
*
Human ecology Human ecology is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and built environments. The philosophy and study of human ecology has a diffuse history with advancements in ecology ...
*
Systems ecology Systems ecology is an interdisciplinary field of ecology, a subset of Earth system science, that takes a holism, holistic approach to the study of ecological systems, especially ecosystems. Systems ecology can be seen as an application of general ...
*
Ecosystem ecology Ecosystem ecology is the integrated study of living ( biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components of ecosystems and their interactions within an ecosystem framework. This science examines how ecosystems work and relates this to their components s ...
* Ecoinformatics *
Ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...
*
Environmental ethics In environmental philosophy, environmental ethics is an established field of practical philosophy "which reconstructs the essential types of argumentation that can be made for protecting natural entities and the sustainable use of natural resourc ...
*
Environmental economics Environmental economics is a sub-field of economics concerned with environmental issues. It has become a widely studied subject due to growing environmental concerns in the twenty-first century. Environmental economics "undertakes theoretical or ...
* Indicator plants *
Indicator species A bioindicator is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. The most common indicator species are animals. For example, copepods and other sma ...
*
Measurement of biodiversity Conservation biologists have designed a variety of objective means to measure biodiversity empirically. Each measure of biodiversity relates to a particular use of the data. For practical conservationists, measurements should include . For othe ...


References

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External links


Journal of Political EcologyJournals of the British Ecological SocietyInstitute of Ecology and Environmental ManagementEcology and Society
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U.S. EPA's Report on the Environment
{{modelling ecosystems, expanded=other Environmental impact assessment Systems ecology Ecology terminology Indicators