Eco-change index (ECI): Development and use of methods in ecosystem evaluation
Rationale
Present plant/forest communities are the result of long-term interactions between vegetation and site factors including man-made impacts. Thus, present vegetation deviates from its natural state, and even from its undisturbed state under present site conditions, to some extent. Hence, for more than fifty years people have tried to develop a method to estimate the man-made impacts on vegetation or the vegetation/ecosystem change.
Project aims
"Hemeroby" is often used to estimate the man-made impacts on the vegetation. It compares present vegetation with a reference vegetation/system, which can be (1) pristine vegetation or (2) present potential natural vegetation (PNV). However, it is nearly impossible to find pristine vegetation on the earth, especially in the developed regions with a long human history. On the other hand, PNV is very hypothetical. Hence, we try to develope a method using the field data directly and objectively to estimate the vegetation/ecosystem change in the past.
Methods
Evolution never reaches a final state. The evolution of ecosystems is chiefly driven by the evolution of species and by environmental change including the man-made impacts. The global climate change and the human activity can change, creating new impulses for the evolution of the ecosystems and thus, reorganising their development. Hence, we hypothesize that the "present state" (PS) of vegetation/ecosystem under the present site conditions is deviated from its undisturbed state (UDS) in species composition and functioning of ecosystem. PS is based on the field data, whereas UDS will be inferred using the field data and mathematical models. More than 10 biotic and abiotic factors of ecosystems are used for the ECI calculation of PS and UDS. The differentiation of their ECI will be a quantitative indicator of vegetation/ecosystem change.
Work plan
- 2003: Modelling and checking of the models using the field data in a limited scope
- 2004: Improvement of the models and use for the LWF-data
- 2005-2007: Evaluation of the Swiss forest ecosystems using these models/methods; publications and final report
Participants
- Mai-He Li (WSL), Project Leader
- Norbert Kräuchi (WSL)
- Matthias Dobbertin (WSL)
- Karl Schieler, Austrian Federal Office and Research Centre for Forests
- Jian Yang
Publications
- Li M.H., Kräuchi N., 2003. A method for estimating vegetation
change over time and space. Journal of Geographical Sciences 13(4):
447-454.
- Li M.H., Kräuchi N., 2003. Using native and non-native plant
diversity combination to estimate vegetation/environmental change
across scales. Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft für Okologie 33:
240-&.
- Li M.H., Kräuchi N., 2002. Oko-Index:
eine Methode zur Abschätzung der Natürlichkeit von Waldökosystemen.
Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft für Okologie 32: 74-&.
- Li M.H., Kräuchi N., 2002. Quality
and quantity of present vegetation - Vegetation change study based
on biodiversity assessment. In: Vegetation change and its effect
on the environment. Beijing, China, The Chinese Society of Geography,
pp. 27-35.
- Yang J., Li M.H., Kräuchi N., Hu Y.M., Gao J.R. 2002. Hemeroby,
PNV and vegetation/ecosystem restoration In: Vegetation change
and its effect on the environment. Beijing, China, The Chinese Society
of Geography, pp. 318-324.
- Li M.H., Kräuchi N., Yang J. 2002. Hemeroby
- A method to assess the naturalness of vegetation. Progress in
Geography 21(5): 450-458.
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