The use of a goal such as ecosystem health to guide fishery management forces resource scientists and managers to define ecosytem states, typically based on historical information reflecting ecosystem structure and yield.
Ecosystem Report to Congress, 1999
Defining a "healthy" ecosystem is not an easy task. Managers can look back at the historical structure and function of a system then use this "healthy" state as a baseline to quantify subsequent degradation. A more feasible approach, involves identifying the "unhealthy" states of an ecosystem that should be avoided, i.e. preventing low biodiversity, high estuarine nutrient levels, low mean trophic levels, etc.
To develop indices of ecosystem health for the South Atlantic, the Council has identified critical research needs. Among them are:
- Determining the causes of Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB).
- Identifying useful biological indicators to assess stress on estuarine systems.
- Developing long-term coordinated monitoring programs to document natural and human-induced variability in estuarine systems.
- Documenting the status and trends of estuarine fauna and their contaminant loads.
- Better characterizing the sources and impacts of nutrient inputs to rivers and estuaries.
- Better characterizing the sources and impacts of contaminant inputs to rivers and estuaries.