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Marine ecosystem is a complex nonlinear system. However, ecosystem health assessment conventionally builds on a linear superposition of changes in ecosystem components and probably fails to evaluate nonlinear interactions among various components. To better reflect the intrinsic interactions and their impacts on ecosystem health, an ecosystem coordination index, defined as the matching level of ecosystem structure/services, is proposed and incorporated into the ecosystem health index for a systematic diagnosis in the Pearl River Estuary, China. The analysis results show that the ecosystem health index over the last three decades decreased from 0.91 to 0.50, indicating deteriorating from healthy to unhealthy status. The health index is 3–16% lower than that calculated using the common method without considering ecosystem coordination. Ecosystem health degradation in the Pearl River Estuary manifested as significant decreases in structure/services and somewhat mismatching among them. Overall, the introduction of coordination in ecosystem health assessment could improve the understanding of the mechanism of marine ecosystem change and facilitate effective restoration of ecosystem health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: To study the relationships between species distribution and environmental variables, calanoid copepods were classified and enumerated, and environmental variables were analyzed along 91 sites of the Pearl River Estuary (China) and adjacent waters. The 91 sites were divided into 3 groups based on surface salinity: the Inner area had salinity level below 10‰ and was mostly located in the Pearl River Estuary, the Coastal area had salinity between 10‰ and 32‰ and was almost located along the coastline, while the Offshore area had salinity level higher than 32‰ and was mainly located in the open area. Indicator Species Analysis was conducted to identify the indicator species within each group from among all calanoid copepods taxa. We found that the Inner area was characterized by Acartiella sinensis, Pseudodiaptomus poplesia and Pseudodiaptomus inopinus, the coastal area was characterized by Temora turbinata and Subeucalanus subcrassus, and the Offshore area was characterized by Paracandacia truncata, Subeucalanus subtenuis, Euchaeta rimana, Pareucalanus attenuatus, Rhincalanus cornutus, Cosmocalanus darwini, Centropages gracilis, Undinula vulgaris, Nannocalanus minor and Paraeuchaeta russelli. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was used to identify relevant biotic and abiotic parameters that can best explain the distribution of calanoid copepods. CCA showed that during the summer of 2006, salinity, nutrient variables, especially SiO3–Si, NO3–N and DTN, Depth and Chl a were the environmental variables that strongly impacted the distribution and community structure of calanoid copepods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]