Conceptual Framework for Assessing Ecosystem Health.

ABSTRACT: Over the past century, the environment of the Gulf of Mexico has been significantly altered and impaired by extensive human activities. A national commitment to restore the Gulf was finally initiated in response to the unprecedented Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Consequently, there is a critical need for an assessment framework and associated set of indicators that can characterize the health and sustainability of an ecosystem having the scale and complexity of the Gulf. The assessment framework presented here was developed as an integration of previous ecological risk- and environmental management-based frameworks for assessing ecosystem health. It was designed to identify the natural and anthropogenic drivers, pressures, and stressors impinging on ecosystems and ecosystem services

SUBMITTER: Harwell MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6852332 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature