David J. Rapport

Ecosystem Health: An Emerging Integrative Science

The health metaphor has a long history within ecology and natural history. The use of the metaphor has evolved rapidly in the last several decades, as it has become far more obvious to both the public and politicians and decision makers that nature, increasingly, has become “disabled” as a consequence of human activity (World Resources Institute 1992).

Ecosystem services and management options as blanket indicators of ecosystem health

A pragmatic and integrative approach to evaluation of the environment combines ecosystem sciences, health sciences, and social sciences. Each has a crucial role to play: the ecosystem sciences provide information on the complex dynamics of ecosystems as they are influenced by stress and disturbance; the health sciences provide a methodology for systematic diagnosis of pathology, taxonomy of ills, and models for preventive as well as rehabilitative modes; the social sciences bring to the fore the importance of human values which are part and parcel of any health evaluation. The complexity of stress-response systems precludes anything approximating a complete understanding of mechanisms underpinning ecosystem transformations. However, the loss of ecosystem services and management options appears to be a general phenomenon that permits an overall evaluation of ecosystem health in both aquatic and terrestrial systems. Such blanket indicators take into account both the impairment of ecosystem function and societal values. This is illustrated by the history of ecosystem transformation in the Laurentian Lower Great Lakes and in the overharvested forest ecosystems of Eastern Canada. In both cases, cultural stress resulted in losses in highly valued ecosystem services and management options. These losses have been partially compensated for by new technologies that have permitted commercial use of the remaining lower quality resources. This process itself, however, may be pathological, reinforcing a degradation sequence rather than serving to restore ecosystem health.

The Health of Ecology and the Ecology of Health

The health of ecology refers to ecosystem health—an extension of the concept of health to the ecosystem level. Health is reflected in the absence of distress syndrome, and by productivity, organization and resilience that characterize sustainability in the Earths ecosystems. Transformation of ecosystems under stress from healthy to pathological conditions is often irreversible, even when the initial stress factors are removed. The ecology of health refers to the fact that human health is influenced by ecological conditions. The breakdown of ecosystems under stress are often conducive to an increase in human pathogens, recycling toxic substances, reduced yields and compromised food supplies, scarcity of potable water, and air pollution, all of which increases human health vulnerability. Addressing human health issues from an ecological perspective takes account of the social, ecological, and biophysical determinants. This opens the door to potential interventions “upstream”, in order to prevent illness, in addition to treating the disease once the malady has occurred.

BIODIVERSITY AND SAVING THE EARTH

The challenges for reversing course in our stewardship of the earths ecosystems has never been greater. Biodiversity is in decline on an unprecedented scale and it is tempting to use this as an indicator of the health of the earths ecosystems. In fact it is one of a number of indicators that collectively provides information on trends in the condition of ecosystems. But the larger problem is the lack of integration between the social and natural sciences. Mainstream scientists continue to reject the notion that solving environmental problems requires an integration of values and processes. A conceptual model shows how these facets may be brought together. A holistic vision requires the integration of natural, social and health sciences. From this perspective the linkage between biodiversity, ecosystem resilience and management options is more clearly articulated.

Ecosystem Health in Professional Education: The Path Ahead

This supplement shows that ecosystem health has become a vital part of the curriculum in a small number of medical, veterinary, and public health schools. This limited, but important, experience provides the groundwork for further expansion into other professional schools and into other universities. Although ecosystem health has defined underlying principles, previous experience has shown that each professional faculty should define what ecosystem health means for the institution and for its students. Based on this definition, it is important that detailed learning objectives be defined for ecosystem health as it pertains to the profession. A model for further development is proposed in this editorial. This model focuses on developing the necessary skill sets for ecosystem health education, the expansion of ecosystem health into earlier and later stages of learning (high school through undergraduate, through postgraduate, and onto practicing professional levels), and raising the awareness of ecosystem health in the local community and at national and international levels. Once comprehensive, transdisciplinary, continuous ecosystem health programs become mainstream, one can expect a “sea change” in the attention given to the interrelationship between humans and their environments, and a more concerted effort to restore the health of our planetary ecosystems.

A framework for identifying and classifyingecosystem dysfunctions

Even though there is a global proliferation of cases of ecosystem breakdown under stress, little attention has been given to the development of practical and efficient means for cross-referencing ‘similar cases’. It seems essential that a more systematic approach be adopted for the efficient analysis of options in environmental management. This paper presents a frame work for identifying ecosystem dysfunctions and proposes a classification based on stresses and responses, a procedure which does not require a mechanistic knowledge of the causal pathways that lead to environmental degradation. By examining the techniques used in classifying disorders in human medicine, insight is derived, allowing one to treat the ecosystem as a patient. All attempts at distinguishing between pathological and natural response, whether in human or ecosystem medicine, must ultimately be based on context; the significance of a particular condition and appropriate remedial actions must always be viewed in relation to a specific patient.

Managing for Sustainability: Ecological Footprints, Ecosystem Health and the Forest Capital Index

We may define ecosystems most simply as the interactions of plants and animals with their abiotic environment. As such, we may identify their ecological character in terms of species dominance (plant or animal), energy flux, nutrient flows and the like. Humans are part of these systems, and we may thus also identify ecosystems in terms of their socio-cultural characteristics. Indeed, increasingly, humans have so modified nature, that the socio-economic (and hence culturally determined) impacts are now the dominant force in ecosystem dynamics (Vitousek et al., 1997). Further, increasingly the landscape has been transformed by wholly human-constructed and maintained ecosystems: e.g. agro-ecosystems, agro-forestry, aquaculture, dams (creating mammoth lakes), diversions for rivers (for irrigation, and/or energy) and so forth. Even without human influence, in the time before Homosapiens and our immediate progenitors, two to three million years ago, ecosystems were anything but static. Over various time scales, from geological to ecological, ecosystems undergo change, owing to geological, ecological and evolutionary forces. Large inland seas, which once covered two-thirds of what is now North America, transformed into fertile plains and grasslands. Continents have formed, and migrated over the Earth’s surface – propelled by the geological forces of plate tectonics. In these migrations, tropical ecosystems have become arctic, or sub-arctic. Forests have been gained and lost, lakes appear and disappear, and sometimes connect with and disconnect from the sea – as is the history of the great expanse of waters now known as the Baltic Sea. Today, there is no evidence that these ‘larger forces’ have been quieted. No doubt they continue to come into play, at gigantic spatial and temporal scales. However, it is evident that at infinitely smaller ecological time scales,