This paper introduces an Information Theory-based method for modeling economic aggregates and estimating their sub-group (sub-area) decomposition when no individual or sub-group data are available. This method offers a flexible framework for modeling the underlying variation in sub-group indicators, by addressing the spatial dependency problem. A basic ecological inference problem, which allows...

The Prairie Pothole Region of the northern Great Plains is an important region for waterfowl production because of the abundance of shallow wetlands. The ecological significance of the region and impacts from intensive agriculture prompted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to select it as one of the first areas for developing and evaluating ecological indicators of wetland condition. We ...

Geo-information technologies are valuable tools for ecological assessment in stressed environments. Visualizing natural features prone to disasters from the oil sector spatially not only helps in focusing the scope of environmental management with records of changes in affected areas, but it also furnishes information on the pace at which resource extraction affects nature. Notwithstanding the ...

Abstract: Marine macro-algae are very important biological indicators of the ecological status of the marine environment because they are first to react to the pollution entering the sea including nutrients which determine the trophy of the ambient of the environment. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the present trophic level and the health status of the sampling stations according to the E...

Several marine ecosystems under anthropogenic pressure have experienced shifts from one ecological state to another. In the central Baltic Sea, the regime shift of the 1980s has been associated with food-web reorganization and redirection of energy flow pathways. These long-term dynamics from 1974 to 2006 have been simulated here using a food-web model forced by climate and fishing. Ecological ...

The Improved Generalized Diversity Index (IGDI) has been proposed as a tool that can be used to identify areas that have high conservation value and measure the ecological condition of an area. IGDI is based on the species relative abundances. This paper is concerned with particular attention is given to comparisons involving the MacArthur model of species abundances. The properties and perform...

Large, migratory predators are often cited as sentinel species for ecosystem processes and climate-related changes, but their utility as indicators is dependent upon an understanding of their response to environmental variability. Documentation of the links between climate variability, ecosystem change and predator dynamics is absent for most top predators. Identifying species that may be usefu...

New Swiss legislation obligates hydropower plant owners to reduce detrimental impacts on rivers ecosystems caused by hydropeaking. We used a case study in the Swiss Alps (hydropower company Kraftwerke Oberhasli AG) to develop an efficient and successful procedure for the ecological evaluation of such impacts, and to predict the effects of possible mitigation measures. We evaluated the following...

EPA Grant Number: R-82868401 Subproject: 001 Center: The Atlantic Slope Consortium––Developing Ecological Indicators for Aquatic Ecosystems of the Atlantic Slope Region Center Director: Robert Brooks Title: Integrated Assessment of Estuarine Ecosystems Investigators: Dennis Whigham, Charles Gallegos, Mark Brinson, Kirk Havens, Anson Hines, Peter Marra, Rick Rheinhardt, Lyle Varnell Institutions...

EPA Grant Number: R82867505 Subproject: This is subproject number 05, established and managed by the Center Director under grant R828675 Center: Great Lakes Environmental Indicators Project Center Director: Gerald J. Niemi Title: Development and Evaluation of Chemical Indicators for Monitoring Ecological Risk Investigators: Deborah Swackhamer, Matthew Simcik Cooperators: David Mount, Gary Ankle...