Abstract

We present a critical introduction to the problems shared by ecologists and ecosystem health researchers who attempt to integrate applied ecology with other disciplines. The importance of the concept of ecosystem health as an approach to environmental problems is presented, and the difficulties in integrating ecology into the concept are outlined. A rigorous ecological and evolutionary basis for ecosystem health is introduced through diversity abundance models and especially by the outcome of competitive exclusion, niche hierarchy, and log normality. The importance of defining functional groups for assessing the effects of disturbance (e.g., on pollinators, macrolepidoptera, diatoms, gut bacteria) and in the broader context of ecosystem health (e.g., through pollinating bees) is stressed.