Ecological Indicators, 1992
Volume 1

Today environmental problems of unprecedented magnitude confront planet earth. The sobering fact is that a whole range of human activities is affecting our global environment as profoundly as the billions of years of evolution that preceded our tenure on Earth. The pressure on vital natural resources in the developing world and elsewhere is intense, and the destruction of tropical forests, wildlife habitat, and other irreplaceable resources, is alarming. Climate change, ozone depletion, loss of genetic diversity, and marine pollution are critical global environmental concerns. Their cumulative impact threatens to destroy the planet's natural resources. The need to address this situation is urgent. More than at any previous moment in history, nature and ecological systems are in human hands, dependent on human efforts. The earth is an interconnected and interdependent global ecosystem, and change in one part of the system often causes unexpected change in other parts. Atmospheric, oceanic, wetland, terrestrial and other ecological systems have a finite capacity to absorb the environmental degradation caused by human behavior. The need for an environmentally sound, sustainable economy to ease this degradation is evident and urgent. Policies designed to stimulate economic development by foregoing pollution controls both destroy the long-term economy and ravage the environment. Over the years, we have sometimes drawn artificial distinctions between the health of individuals and the health of ecosystems. But in the real world, those distinctions do not exist.

1. Factors Shaping and Shaped by the Environment: 1990–2010.- 2. Protecting the Environment: A Research Strategy for the 1990s—An Indicator of Change in EPA.- 3. Using Environmental Indicators for Policy and Regulatory Decisions.- 4. Ecological Indicators of Marine Condition (abstract only).- 5. Ecological Forecasting: ‘What For?’.- 6. Indicators of the Causes of Ecological Impacts or ‘What’s Causing the Global Environmental Crisis?’.- 7. Earth Day Plus 20: Rediscovering Ecology.- 8. Global Indicators: What the People Expect.- 9. Evolution of Indicators of Ecosystem Health.- 10. Indicators in Regional Ecological Monitoring and Risk Assessment.- 11. Indicator Selection: A Key Element in Monitoring System Design.- 12. Thermodynamics and Measures of Ecological Integrity.- 13. Indicators of Ecosystem Integrity.- 14. Ecological Indicators and Ecological Modelling.- 15. Choosing Ecological Indicators: Effect of Taxonomic Aggression on Sensitivity to Stress and Natural Variability.- 16. Biomarkers of Environmental Exposure and Multivariate Approaches for Assessment and Monitoring.- 17. The Application of In-situ Bioassays as Ecological Indicators for Assessing River Quality.- 18. Ecological Monitoring of Fish Assemblages in Tennessee River Reservoirs.- 19. Contribution of Fish Community Metrics to the Index of Biotic Integrity in Two Ozark Rivers.- 20. Lake and Stream Indicators for the US EPAs Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program.- 21. Ecological Indicators of Temperate Forest Ecosystem Condition.- 22. The Visual Damage Survey: A Study to Evaluate the Eastern Forest Condition.- 23. Identification and Use of Plant Species as Ecological Indicators of Air Pollution Stress in National Park Units.- 24. Biological Diversity Assessment in Glacier National Park, Montana: I. Sampling Design.- 25. Toxic Effects Monitoring in Baltic Sea Coastal Areas.- 26. National Status and Trends Program: Chemical and Biological Monitoring of U.S. Coastal Waters.- 27. Benthic Communities as Indicators of Ecosystem Condition (abstract only).- 28. Evaluation of Bioindicators of Contaminant Exposure and Effects in Coastal Ecosystems.- 29. Monitoring Nitrogen and Indicators of Nitrogen Loading to Support Management Action in Buzzards Bay.- 30. Ecological Indicators for Ecological Engineering in Wetlands.- 31. Coupling Wetlands Structure and Function: Developing a Condition Index for Wetlands Monitoring.- 32. Choices in Monitoring Wetlands.- 33. Indicators of Flooding Derived From Aerial Photography in Northern Prairie Wetlands.- 34. Indicators of Environmental Stress in Wetland Plants.- 35. Indicators of the Ecological Status of Agroecosystems.- 36. The Soil Conservation Services New Water Quality Indicators Guide (a summary).- 37. The Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) as an Ecological Indicator for Agricultural and Forest Systems.- 38. Testing a Biological System for Indicating Ozone in Minnesota.- 39. Site-Specific and Regional Monitoring with Honey Bees: Case Study Comparisons.- 40. The Vulnerability of Agricultural Systems to Ecological and Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa (a summary).- 41. Ecological Indicator Strategy for Monitoring Arid Ecosystems.- 42. Ecological Indicators in a Desert/Grassland Transition.- 43. Monitoring the Condition of Australian Arid Lands: Linked Plant-Soil Indicators.- 44. Cryptogamic Crusts as Potential Indicators of Disturbance in Semi-Arid Landscapes.- 45. Spatial Modeling and Landscape Characterization of an African Pastoral Ecosystem: A Prototype Model and its Potential Use for Monitoring Drought.