An epidemiological approach to the analysis of indicators and reference points of ecosystem and population health

渔业和生态系统科学家经常被赋予确定种群或生态系统是否健康的角色，以便为保护和管理决策提供投入，例如濒危物种列表，制定捕鱼法规或允许采矿或林业等活动。对于人口，我们依赖于丰度和死亡率等指标。 我们还可以包括疾病流行率和有毒化学品浓度等因素。 生态系统有许多潜在的指标，如物种丰富度、食物网复杂性和生产力。 然而，对于每个指标的健康和不健康之间的正确分界线或如何将多个指标的结果联合收割机合并，几乎没有指导。

Fisheries and ecosystem scientists are often given the role of determining whether a population or ecosystem is healthy for input into conservation and management decisions such as endangered species listings, setting fishing regulations, or permitting for activities such as mining or forestry. For populations, we rely on indicators such as abundance and mortality rates. We could also include factors such as disease prevalence and toxic chemical concentrations. With ecosystems, there are numerous potential indicators such as species richness, food-web complexity, and productivity. However, there is little guidance as to the correct cut-off between healthy and unhealthy for each indicator or how to combine results from multiple indicators.