Intelligent and self-adjusting: Systems learn and grow when faced with changes. During drought, locally, adapted, native plants don’t spend energy to flower.
Dynamic: Systems show quick responses to a changing environment.
Redundant: Many species perform similar functions, which contribute to efficiency, resiliency and stability.
Self organized: Landscape patterns reflect long-standing evolutionary relationships between biophysical conditions on the land and how species relate to these conditions and each other.
Self-replicating: When disturbed, species exhibit tendency to return to structure and spatial patterns of biodiversity.
Efficient often-stingy : No waste products. Everything is recycled or re used (?simple example for each?)
Operate at all temporal and spatial scales: Small scales of organization are nested and contribute to large scales of operation.
Strive toward lowest energy levels: They avoid states that expend energy in irregular ways. A stream meanders, reflecting the most efficient way to dissipate the energy in moving water.
May have multiple sources of energy and nutrients and as such may be closed, continuous or open ecosystems: We will honor the diversity of flow pathways that support and maintain each ecosystem.
Have thresholds where functions are impaired or lost. Some functions cease to operate at small ecosystem scale thresholds whereby animal species that require large habitat areas, or have what’s called a large “home range”, depart or die if the area of habitat is reduced.
Are structured around critical relationships of size, continuity, and tenure that directly correlates with ecosystem functional health and diversity.
Produce tangible and intangible products and benefits: O2, foodstuffs, seeds, fish – fiber, aesthetics.
Because of the diversity of species that benefit from ecosystem functions and products. We will recognize this diversity link to functions of the ecosystem.
Resiliency: systems can re-assemble after disruption and bounce back.
Vulnerable to patterns, types and magnitude of change and disruptions to which they have no evolutionary experience.
Human ingenuity has not replaced ecosystem functions: All human created systems fall short of meeting the other ecosystem health characteristics
Species have different area requirements, which may vary by ecosystem
Variable rates at which they can use or metabolize contaminants:
Linked: Ecosystems very seldom are isolated, many benefits are generated in the transitional areas, called ecotones (zones between different ecosystem types).
Restoration requires human energy and time: One of the key revelations to jump-start the ecosystem restoration processes was sustained human involvement.
Healthy Ecosystems are…
