Ecosystem health and its evolution indicator and method

Ecosystem health is a multidisciplinary integrative field exploring the interrelations between human activity,social organization,natural systems,and human health.An ecological sys-tem is healthy and free from"distress syndrome "if it is stable and sustainable,i.e.,if it is active and maintains its organization,and autonomy over time and is resilient to stress.The basic ecolog-ical axioms of evolution ecosystem health include the axiom of dynamism,the axiom of hierarchy,the axiom of creativity,the axiom of relatedness and the axiom of differential fragility.The evolu-tion components of ecosystem health include eight criteria,e.g.,vigor,organization,resilience,etc.E-cosystem health is at the early stage of development,and there are some problems to solve.As we further develop the theory of ecosystem health,the quantitative methods,particularly those from the development of remote sensing applications and GIS technique will contribute to the capacity to analyse and evaluate ecosystem health over large areas.The advanced technique will promote its further development.