Ecosystem health

Ecosystem health is a metaphor used to describe the condition of an ecosystem. Ecosystem condition can vary as a result of fire, flooding, drought, extinctions, invasive species, climate change, mining, overexploitation in fishing, farming or logging, chemical spills, and a host of other reasons. There is no universally accepted benchmark for a healthy ecosystem, rather the apparent health status of an ecosystem can vary depending upon which health metrics are employed in judging it and which societal aspirations are driving the assessment. Advocates of the health metaphor argue for its simplicity as a communication tool. “Policy-makers and the public need simple, understandable concepts like health.” Critics worry that ecosystem health, a “value-laden construct,” is often “passed off as science to unsuspecting policy makers and the public.”

History of the concept

The health metaphor applied to the environment has been in use at least since the early 1800s and the great American conservationist Aldo Leopold (1887 – 1948) spoke metaphorically of land health, land sickness, mutilation, and violence when describing land use practices. The term “ecosystem management” has been in use at least since the 1950s. The term “ecosystem health” has become widespread in the ecological literature, as a general metaphor meaning something good, and as an environmental quality goal in field assessments of rivers, lakes, seas, and forests.