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The nature conservation has entered a new stage of integratively managing humannature harmonized ecosystems. It has become a consensus to break through the elementary thinking and systematically conserve ecosystem integrity from perspectives of ecological characters, ecosystem health and self- organization ability of ecosystems. After experiencing long-term fragmented management across different sectors, China began to emphasize unified management for ecosystem integrity in the process of establishing a national park system. This study argues that the ecosystem integrity of national park does not only mean an intact internal natural space, but also matters to the national ecological security and thus should be strategically viewed from spatial layout of natural protected areas. The vision of sustainably maintaining ecosystem integrity can only be realized by taking each national park as a node of an eco-geographical area. These nodes should be bridged with surrounding protected areas, and effectively balance the relationship both between administrative areas and between people and nature. From this point of view, existing researches are still insufficient in guiding the macroscale conservation of ecosystem integrity and balancing the relationship between people and nature. Problems also exist in piloting national park systems, such as the lack of managerial technology, the restrictions imposed by administrative boundaries on national park boundaries, the failure to build ecosystem integrity networks with national parks as the core, and the insufficient consideration given to different human-land relations. It is recommended to view the ecosystem at a macro scale and take into account the relations between national parks and surrounding areas, between different administrative regions, and also between human and nature within national parks. This is the best approach for achieving the long- term goal of ecosystem integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Watershed restoration for mitigating or preventing impacts of human land use on aquatic ecosystems is now big business and is far more common and consumes far more financial resources than 10 to 20 y ago. The effects of restoration are assumed to be improvements in stream ecosystem integrity. However, there is not conclusive evidence that shows that most watershed restoration and mitigation projects produce expected environmental and biological changes. Here we present and discuss 4 major challenges associated with the planning, execution, and monitoring of large-scale restoration programs aimed at improving the ecosystem integrity of streams (and their downstream rivers and estuaries), with a focus on agricultural best management practices and urban stormwater control measures. These challenges are 1) the lack of holistic planning for implementing and monitoring large-scale restoration projects, 2) planning that does not include geographic context or considerations of scale, 3) a failure to tie monitoring to specific goals and predicted improvements in ecosystems, and 4) the limited and parochial approach to monitoring taken by funding agencies. We propose solutions for these challenges based on experience gained from planning and executing a large-scale program for improving water quality of the Delaware River in eastern North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical ecological areas (CEAs), as important regions for biodiversity and ecosystem functions, are crucial for ecological conservation and environmental management at regional and global scales. However, the methodology and framework of CEA identification have not been well established. In this study, a comprehensive CEA identification method was developed based on the ecosystem multifunctionality-stability-integrity framework by using K-means clustering, critical slowing down theory and possible connectivity. Taking the Yellow River basin (YRB) as a case study, our results showed that ecosystem multifunctionality gradually decreased from the southeast to northwest. A decrease in ecosystem stability was observed since 2017 and was mainly due to the increased impacts of human activities and urbanization within the 10–20 km distance threshold from the ecosystem. Based on the proposed framework, 15.13% of the YRB was identified as CEAs with reliable estimates, and most areas were distributed in the Three-River Headwaters, Qinling and Taihang Mountains. Moreover, urbanization and precipitation were found to be the dominant environmental factors affecting the CEA distribution in the YRB. Our results indicated that the proposed framework could provide a comprehensive approach for CEA identification and useful implications for ecological conservation and environmental management. [Display omitted] • An ecosystem multifunctionality-stability-integrity framework was developed to identify CEAs. • A total of 15.13% of the Yellow River basin was identified as CEAs with reliable estimates. • Ecosystem multifunctionality gradually decreased from southeast to northwest. • Urbanization could affect ecosystem stability within a 10–20 km distance threshold. • Urbanization and precipitation were dominant factors affecting CEA distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rewilding is emerging as a promising restoration strategy to enhance the conservation status of biodiversity and promote self-regulating ecosystems while re-engaging people with nature. Overcoming the challenges in monitoring and reporting rewilding projects would improve its practical implementation and maximize its conservation and restoration outcomes. Here, we present a novel approach for measuring and monitoring progress in rewilding that focuses on the ecological attributes of rewilding. We devised a bi-dimensional framework for assessing the recovery of processes and their natural dynamics through (i) decreasing human forcing on ecological processes and (ii) increasing ecological integrity of ecosystems. The rewilding assessment framework incorporates the reduction of material inputs and outputs associated with human management, as well as the restoration of natural stochasticity and disturbance regimes, landscape connectivity and trophic complexity. Furthermore, we provide a list of potential activities for increasing the ecological integrity after reviewing the evidence for the effectiveness of common restoration actions. For illustration purposes, we apply the framework to three flagship restoration projects in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Argentina. This approach has the potential to broaden the scope of rewilding projects, facilitate sound decision-making and connect the science and practice of rewilding. This article is part of the theme issue 'Trophic rewilding: consequences for ecosystems under global change'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the RISC 2017 International Congress, we reflected on the possibility of achieving a "sustainable, integral and coherent development." We primarily report here on the panel of Mexican experts who shared their experiences on issues such as the impact of the international agenda on the local policy priorities, the relevance of the participation of local stakeholders and the occurrence of inconsistencies throughout the process of design and implementation of development policies. In addition, other experiences were presented on these issues, some of which are included in this special issue. The general conclusion was that not only is it possible to articulate a sustainable, integral and coherent development but also that approaches and tools are already emerging that favor it through an evidence-based policy management and the use of the growing "environmental big data" that already exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Small Dung Beetles (SDB) assemblages were studied in Neotropical landscapes (NL). • SDB assemblages’ diversity was poorly correlated with habitat disturbance. • SDB assemblages’ composition was highly correlated with habitat disturbance. • Ecological status of habitats in NL should be assessed using SDB composition. Abstract Neotropical forests are extremely diverse ecosystems, listed within the biological hotspots of our planet. However, species from these forests are threatened by diverse anthropogenic activities. Small dung beetles (Scarabaeidae, Aphodiinae) assemblages were studied within different habitats of the Brazilian Amazon. The monitored habitats encompassed the main gradients of disturbance, from pristine to highly anthropogenic situations, with the aim of supporting their use as indicators of neotropical forests’ ecological status. Additionally, seasonal patterns and bait attractiveness were evaluated in the scope of more effective monitoring studies. Our main results demonstrate that the diversity and distribution of small dung beetles along disturbance gradients, represented by the monitored locations, is associated with particular habitats within the forest landscape. Although spatially and temporally restricted, the results of this study highlight the potential of using small dung beetles, due to their sensitivity and habitat specificity, as ecological indicators for assessing the extent of disturbance in neotropical forest landscapes. We also suggest specific techniques and periods to be used in order to increase captures of small dung beetles within the different habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenges posed by climate and land use change are increasingly complex, with ever-increasing and accelerating impacts on the global environmental system. The establishment of an internationally harmonized, integrated, and long-term operated environmental monitoring infrastructure is one of the major challenges of modern environmental research. Increased efforts are currently being made in Europe to establish such a harmonized pan-European observation infrastructure, and the European network of Long-Term Ecological Research sites – LTER-Europe – is of particular importance. By evaluating 477 formally accredited LTER-Europe sites, this study gives an overview of the current distribution of these infrastructures and the present condition of long-term environmental research in Europe. We compiled information on long-term biotic and abiotic observations and measurements and examined the representativeness in terms of continental biogeographical and socio-ecological gradients. The results were used to identify gaps in both measurements and coverage of the aforementioned gradients. Furthermore, an overview of the current state of the LTER-Europe observation strategies is given. The latter forms the basis for investigating the comparability of existing LTER-Europe monitoring concepts both in terms of observational design as well as in terms of the scope of the environmental compartments, variables and properties covered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coastal zone as interface between land and sea faces much pressure from human activities. These pressures make it difficult for the coastal zones to fulfil their natural functions, so threatening the state of coastal environments and making them vulnerable to coastal disasters and degradation. This study aimed to test whether high resolution remote sensing imagery can be used to assess the integrity of coastal Strandveld vegetation at the high spatial resolution required as baseline information for local environmental management. The study focused on the Cape Flats Dune Strandveld vegetation in northern False Bay near Cape Town, South Africa. The approach modifies and adopts a method developed by Lück-Vogel et al. (2013) for a remote sensing derived habitat intactness assessment for the Sandveld region at South Africa's west coast. A regression analysis was performed on the eight spectral bands of two WorldView-2 images and five image derivatives to evaluate the most suitable bands for producing an ecosystem integrity index. Based on the results, only the RED and NIR bands were required to perform a decision tree classification for the integrity classification, which significantly simplifies the application and opens the way for transfer to sensors with similar spectral bands. The overall accuracy of the results was 80.5% with a kappa value of 0.75. This means that this approach provides results accurate enough for coastal management and conservation applications at a local scale. A further finding is the importance of seasonality to delineate natural and alien vegetation accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper review the naturalness related concepts, with a special emphasis on forests, and also their implications on forest conservation. Beside naturalness, key aspects of wild(er)ness, ecosystem integrity, ecosystem health, forest quality and authenticity are disscussed. The main approaches on forest naturalness are presented, including the basic (minimum) naturalness requests, the shortcomings of associating high extreme naturalness levels (virgin, pristine) to forests, or the necessity to consider the temporal component of naturalness (e.g. the forest history). In the section of conservation issues is presented a brief summary of the most important regional/world based statistics of high naturalness forests, including practical reccomendations regarding their size and weight at landscape scale.

Invertebrate-mediated leaf litter decomposition is frequently used to assess stress-related implications in stream ecosystem integrity. In situ measures such as the mass loss from leaf bags or the feeding of caged invertebrates deployed for days or weeks may, however, fail to detect transient effects due to recovery or compensatory mechanisms. We assessed the relevance of transient effects using the peak exposure towards an insecticide (i.e., etofenprox) as a model scenario at three levels of complexity. These were 1) the assessment of the decomposition realised by invertebrate communities in stream mesocosms over 21 days via leaf bags, 2) 7-days lasting in situ bioassays quantifying the leaf consumption of Gammarus fossarum , and 3) a laboratory experiment determining the daily feeding rate of the same species over 7 days. Etofenprox did not trigger a significantly altered decomposition by invertebrate communities during the leaf bag assay, while in situ bioassays detected a significant reduction in gammarids’ feeding rate at the highest tested concentration. The laboratory bioassay suggests that observed mismatches might be explained by recovery and post-exposure compensation. As leaf-shredding invertebrates are likely in a vulnerable state following transient effects, biomonitoring for implications of peak exposures and other pulsed stress events must happen at an adequate temporal resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Landscapes differ in their capacities to provide ecosystem goods and services, which are the benefits humans obtain from nature. Structures and functions of ecosystems needed to sustain the provision of ecosystem services are altered by various human activities. In this paper, a concept for the assessment of multiple ecosystem services is proposed as a basis for discussion and further development of a respective evaluation instrument. Using quantitative and qualitative assessment data in combination with land cover and land use information originated from remote sensing and GIS, impacts of human activities can be evaluated. The results reveal typical patterns of different ecosystems' capacities to provide ecosystem services. The proposed approach thus delivers useful integrative information for environmental management and landscape planning, aiming at a sustainable use of services provided by nature. The research concept and methodological framework presented here for discussion have initially been applied in different case studies and shall be developed further to provide a useful tool for the quantification and spatial modelling of multiple ecosystem services in different landscapes. An exemplary application of the approach dealing with food provision in the Halle-Leipzig region in Germany is presented. It shows typical patterns of ecosystem service distribution around urban areas. As the approach is new and still rather general, there is great potential for improvement, especially with regard to a data-based quantification of the numerous hypotheses, which were formulated as base for the assessment. Moreover, the integration of more detailed landscape information on different scales will be needed in future in order to take the heterogeneous distribution of landscape properties and values into account. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to foster critical discussions on the methodological development presented here.

This paper takes the move from the uncertainty surrounding ecosystem thresholds and addresses the issue of ecosystem-state assessment by means of ecological integrity indicators and 'ecological risk'. The concept of 'ecological risk' gives a measure of the likelihood of ecosystem failure to provide the level of natural ecological goods and services expected/desired by human societies. As a consequence of human pressures (use of resources and discharge into the environment), ecosystem thresholds can be breached thus resulting in major threats to human health, safety and well-being. In this study we apply the concept of 'ecological risk' to two case-studies in the German exclusive economic zone: eutrophication and construction of offshore wind farms. The effects of different future scenarios for single-uses upon ecosystem integrity are analysed as well as the effects of one combined scenario. We conclude that in the short term construction of offshore wind farms can influence some processes to a much larger degree than eutrophication, however, combined impacts deriving from eutrophication and offshore wind farm construction need a more detailed analysis. Due to non-linear ecosystem processes, effects of combined or multiple uses of marine resources in terms of 'ecological risk', cannot be extrapolated from single-use scenarios.

Facing increasing levels of ecosystem degradation, scientists and practitioners aim to preserve ecological integrity — to maintain structures and functions expected of ecosystems in a region. This requires an understanding of the relationship between structural components and functional integrity. In this paper we focused on the study forests of the Credit River Watershed (Southern Ontario, Canada). For this ecosystem we consider one of the major contributors to functional integrity: habitat functions which are defined as the capacity of the ecosystem to provide refuge and reproduction habitat to wild species of plants and animals. We define these ‘habitat functions’ as a latent variable in Structural Equation Modeling, which allows us to examine its relationship with a number of candidate indicators. We first determined two community-level structural indicators to represent the latent variable: native plant cover and forest bird abundance. We then found underlying causal relationships between multi-scale structural components of the ecosystem and the provision of habitat functions. Three variables at the local scale explain native plant cover — soil nitrogen, soil organic matter, and soil pH. A significant landscape-level variable, patch area, explained native plant cover. Percent natural land cover in a 500 m radius explained forest bird abundance. From a theoretical point of view, this modeling technique allows us to explore complex and simultaneous interactions between structures and functions of ecosystems. As for its practical applications, it can be used to improve ecological integrity monitoring programs by contributing to the selection of meaningful indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing ecosystem health is an ongoing priority for governments, scientists and managers worldwide. There are several decades of scientific literature discussing ecosystem health and approaches to assess it, with applications to aquatic and terrestrial environments incorporating economic, environmental and social processes. We conducted a systematic review of studies that assess ecosystem health to update our current understanding of how ecosystem health is being defined, and provide new ideas and directions on how it can be measured. We focused the review on studies that used the term ‘ecosystem health’ or the equivalent terms ‘ecosystem integrity’, ‘ecosystem quality’ and ‘ecosystem protection’, in lotic freshwater and estuarine environments, and examined how many of these included explicit definitions of what ecosystem health means for their study system. We collected information about the temporal and geographical distribution of studies, and the types of indicators (biological, physical or chemical) used in the assessments. We found few studies clearly defined ecosystem health and justified the choice of indicators. Given the broad use of the term it seems impractical to have an overarching definition of ecosystem health, but rather an approach that is able to define and measure health on a case by case basis. A combination of biological, physical and chemical indicators was commonly used to assess ecosystem health in both estuarine and freshwater studies, with a strong bias towards fish and macroinvertebrate community metrics (e.g. diversity, abundance and composition). We found only two studies that simultaneously considered both freshwater and estuarine sections of the ecosystem, highlighting the significant knowledge gap in our understanding of the transfer of flow, nutrients and biota between the different systems—all key factors that influence ecosystem health. This review is the first to combine knowledge from both freshwater and estuarine ecosystem assessments and critically review how aquatic ecosystem health is defined and measured since the late-1990s, providing the basis for setting achievable management goals relating to ecosystem health into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network comprises > 600 scientific groups conducting sitebased research within 40 countries. Its mission includes improving the understanding of global ecosystems and informs solutions to current and future environmental problems at the global scales. The ILTER network covers a wide range of social-ecological conditions and is aligned with the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) goals and approach. Our aim is to examine and develop the conceptual basis for proposed collaboration between ILTER and PECS. We describe how a coordinated effort of several contrasting LTER site-based research groups contributes to the understanding of how policies and technologies drive either toward or away from the sustainable delivery of ecosystem services. This effort is based on three tenets: transdisciplinary research; cross-scale interactions and subsequent dynamics; and an ecological stewardship orientation. The overarching goal is to design management practices taking into account trade-offs between using and conserving ecosystems toward more sustainable solutions. To that end, we propose a conceptual approach linking ecosystem integrity, ecosystem services, and stakeholder well-being, and as a way to analyze trade-offs among ecosystem services inherent in diverse management options. We also outline our methodological approach that includes: (i) monitoring and synthesis activities following spatial and temporal trends and changes on each site and by documenting cross-scale interactions; (ii) developing analytical tools for integration; (iii) promoting trans-site comparison; and (iv) developing conceptual tools to design adequate policies and management interventions to deal with trade-offs. Finally, we highlight the heterogeneity in the socialecological setting encountered in a subset of 15 ILTER sites. These study cases are diverse enough to provide a broad cross-section of contrasting ecosystems with different policy and management drivers of ecosystem conversion; distinct trends of biodiversity change; different stakeholders' preferences for ecosystem services; and diverse components of well-being issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the recognition of the importance of biological diversity in biological conservation grows, an ongoing challenge is to develop metrics that can be used for effective conservation and management. The ecological integrity assessment has been proposed as such a metric. It is held by some to measure species composition, diversity, and habitat quality, as well as ecosystem structure, composition, and function. The methodology relies on proxy variables that include data on landscape characteristics such as patch size, abiotic factors such as hydrology, and some features of vegetation structure and composition. We suggest that the measure is flawed on four levels. First, its putative representation of general ecological form and function, and its lack of specific detail about how it actually represents those attributes, leaves the metric without the focus needed to be useful for measuring ecological features on the ground and testing associated hypotheses and predictions. Second, the proxy variables used to represent biological diversity, such as habitat (vegetation) metrics and vascular plant species diversity, are not empirically correlated with diversity of a range of taxa or of other components of the biota. Third, like other ecological indices that integrate many distinct features, the ecological integrity index is subject to the loss of information in its condensation of multi-dimensional variability into a one-dimensional index, and it may be subject to systematic bias from the conversion of raw data into categorical scores. Fourth, the sampling protocols are at risk of sampling bias, observer bias, and measurement error, any of which can confound the estimation of conservation value. In terms of biological diversity, the methodology produces an unreliable estimate of the number of vascular plant species and their relative percentages of occurrence, and an absence of any protocols for taxa other than plants. For these reasons we believe that ecological integrity assessment is currently of limited value as a measure of site-specific biological diversity and its change over time. A considerable amount of investigation is needed in order to have confidence in the results of an ecological integrity assessment, especially if it is to be used for regulatory purposes. We suggest further refinements and discuss alternative measures of biological diversity that provide reliable metrics for assessing change. A thoughtful choice among measures can help to identify the most appropriate assessment for conservation decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although sparsely populated, the progressive degradation of Mongolia's rivers, lakes and groundwater, driven by land-use changes, poses a key challenge for the future sustainable development of the country. This paper deciphers the cause--effect--response chain between river bank degradation, changes of the ecological status, declines of ecosystem functions and priority measures with the case of the Kharaa River in Northern Mongolia. The underlying research approach comprised: (1) hydromorphological characterisation of the Kharaa River, (2) water quality assessments, (3) determination of the riverbed composition including hyporheic zone properties, (4) the analysis of riverine biota (macroinvertebrates and primary producers) and (5) the identification of the sources of suspended and settled sediments. The assessment revealed a gradient of spatially heterogeneous river bank erosion due to the degradation of the riparian vegetation caused by overgrazing and wood utilization. As the most prominent ecological response, the biomass of benthic algae decreased and macrozoobenthic community metrics changed continuously along the pressure gradient, accompanied by shifts of habitat related functional traits. At the same time, the hyporheic zone dimensions and functioning were affected by suspended and infiltrated sediments in multiple ways (restricted spatial extent, lowered hydraulic connectivity, lower metabolism, ecologically critical quality of pore water). Geochemical and radionuclide fallout isotope fingerprinting has identified riverbank erosion as the main source of the suspended sediments in the Kharaa River, when compared to gully and land surface erosion. Erosion susceptibility calculations in combination with suspended sediment observations showed a strong seasonal and annual variability of sediment input and instream transport, and a strong connection of erosional behaviour with land-use. Amongst others, the protection of headwaters and the stabilization of the river bank erosion hotspots in the midstream sections of the Kharaa River are the priority measures to avoid further degradation of the aquatic ecosystem status and functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the intensification of human activities, preserving animal populations is a contemporary challenge of critical importance. In this context, the umbrella species concept is appealing because preserving a single species should result in the protection of multiple co-occurring species. Practitioners, though, face the task of having to find suitable umbrellas to develop single-species management guidelines. In North America, boreal forests must be managed to facilitate the recovery of the threatened boreal caribou (Rangifer tarandus). Yet, the effect of caribou conservation on co-occurring animal species remains poorly documented. We tested if boreal caribou can constitute an effective umbrella for boreal fauna. Birds, small mammals, and insects were sampled along gradients of post-harvest and post-fire forest succession. Predictive models of occupancy were developed from the responses of 95 species to characteristics of forest stands and their surroundings. We then assessed the similarity of species occupancy expected between simulated harvested landscapes and a 90 000-km² uncut landscape. Managed landscapes were simulated based on three levels of disturbance, two timber-harvest rotation cycles, and dispersed or aggregated cut-blocks. We found that management guidelines that were more likely to maintain caribou populations should also better preserve animal assemblages. Relative to fragmentation or harvest cycle, we detected a stronger effect of habitat loss on species assemblages. Disturbing 22%, 35%, and 45% of the landscape should result, respectively, in 80%, 60%, and 40% probability for caribou populations to be sustainable; in turn, this should result in regional species assemblages with Jaccard similarity indices of 0.86, 0.79, and 0.74, respectively, relative to the uncut landscape. Our study thus demonstrates the value of single-species management for animal conservation. Our quantitative approach allows for the evaluation of management guidelines prior to implementation, thereby providing a tool for establishing suitable compromises between economic and environmental sustainability of human activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]