An indicating framework for ecosystem sustainability

Abstract

Abstract: Ecosystem sustainability is defined as the capacity of ecosystem in sustaining or maintaining the health and evolution of its components, structures and functions which consists of the capacities of ecological integrity, self maintenance, self regulating and self organization. As ecosystem sustainability is emerged by its components, structures and functions, a methodological basis of measurement should be established by their identification and assessment. In this paper, an indicator based framework of measurement with 12 items and more than 30 variables is presented to indicate the essential dynamic attributes of sustainable ecosystem. Although such an indicator based approach is very necessary for the measurement of ecosystem sustainability, it needs to be combined with integrated methods of measurement to establish a complete system for measuring ecosystems of sustainability.

Key words: Ecosystems, Sustainability, Indicators, hydrogen and oxygen isotope, overland flow, soil architecture, interflow, runoff gene-ration mechanism

Hu Dan . An indicating framework for ecosystem sustainability[J]. Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology, 1997, 8(2): 213-217.

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