Structural and functional indicators in freshwater ecosystem monitoring programs

Abstract

Ecosystem function is a foundational part of ecosystem health, but it is often neglected in the practice of ecosystem monitoring. We conducted a review of freshwater ecosystem management literature, analysing 60 documents across multiple organisations to understand the prevalence of function in conceptualisations and measures of ecosystem health. Only 28% (n = 13) of analysed documents included definitions of waterway health that included function, and only 30% (n = 18) integrated function into their conceptualisations of waterway health. More generally, we observed noticeable deviation in analysed documents from management best practices advocated for by contemporary ecosystem science – including unclear rationales, vague language, and imprecise metrics for assessing waterway health. We discuss these findings in broader ecosystem management contexts. Our findings support previous observations of a strong structural bias in current ecosystem health monitoring and suggest the need for closer examinations into the processes and rationales by which such an important factor could be absent from monitoring programs.