US EPA

2995705 

Journal Article 

A method for lake ecosystem health assessment: an Ecological Modeling Method (EMM) and its application 

Xu, FL; Dawson, RW; Tao, S; Cao, J; Li, BG 

2001 

Yes 

Hydrobiologia
ISSN: 0018-8158
EISSN: 1573-5117 

KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBL 

DORDRECHT 

443 

1-3 

159-175 

WOS:000168065900014 

Ecosystem health is a newly proposed concept that sets new goals for environmental management. Its definition, indexing and assessment methods are still being perfected. An Ecological Modeling Method (EMM) for lake ecosystem health assessment is proposed in this paper. The EMM's procedures are: (1) to analyze the ecosystem structure of a lake in order to determine the structure and complexity of the lake's ecological model; (2) to develop a model having ecological health indicators, by designing a conceptual diagram, establishing model equations, estimating model parameters and being integrated with ecological indicators; (3) to compare the simulated and observed values of important state variables and process rates (i.e. model calibration) in order to evaluate the applicability of the model to lake ecosystem health assessment; (4) to calculate ecosystem health indicators based on the developed model; and (5) to assess lake ecosystem health according to the values of the ecosystem health indicators. The EMM was applied, as a case study, to the ecosystem health assessment of a eutrophic Chinese lake (Lake Chao) between April 1987 and March 1988. A relative order of health states from poor to good was determined as follows: August-October 1987 > April-May 1987 > June-July 1987 > November-December 1987 > January-March 1988. These results compared quite favourably with the actual current conditions at Lake Chao. The EMM method, therefore, was suitable in assessing lake ecosystem health at Lake Chao. 

ecological modeling; ecosystem health assessment; ecological indicator; Lake Chao