Indicating ecosystem and landscape organisation

This paper presents a brief outline of the theoretical and conceptual fundamentals for the derivation of an ecosystem oriented indicator system to demonstrate the state of ecological entities on a holistic basis. There are two branches of argumentation: on a normative level, the sustainability principle is interpreted from an anthropocentric point-of-view; sustainability in this context means to provide ecosystem services on a broad scale and a long-term basis, including the attempt to avoid unspecific ecological risks. A second line-of-argumentation bases on the principles of ecosystem analysis and the theory of ecological orientation. Consequently, the aspired indicandum is the self-organising capacity of ecosystems, and the indicator sets represents an aggregate of structural and functional ecosystem features in a developing environment. The indicator set is demonstrated by one case study from the Bornhoeved Lakes ecosystem research project. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.