Editorial: Ecosystem assessment and management

With the unprecedented development of information technology of both hardware and software, ecological data have rapidly accumulated in quality and quantity for various biological organisms in addition to the development of new analytical techniques. Consequently, methods that deal with complex data such as information extraction, interpretation, assessment, and management are essential for the prompt and proper understanding of the nature of complex ecosystems as well as for effective ecosystem management. The International Conference on Ecological Informatics 2013 (ICEI 2013) was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, from June 27 (Thursday) to June 28 (Friday), 2013. A total of 45 papers, including seven plenary and invited talks, were presented. The plenary and invited talks were delivered by: Friedrich Recknagel (University of Adelaide, Australia): “Discovery of ecological thresholds by evolutionary computation”; Joon Kim (Seoul National University, Korea): “Ecosystem monitoring, assessment, and management through ecological informatics approaches”; Bob McKay (Seoul National University, Korea): “Combining expert knowledge and evolutionary algorithms in ecological modelling”; Tae-Soo Chon (Pusan National University, Korea): “Computational methods for monitoring animal movement and response behaviours under chemical stress”; Bin Chen (Beijing Normal University, China): “Network analysis for aquatic ecological risk assessment”; Young-Seuk Park (Kyung Hee University, Korea): “Analysis of behaviour-ecology and modelling through movement sensor network”; and Qiuwen Chen (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China): “Uncertainty analysis of algal bloom risk by integrating artificial neural network and fuzzy theory”. The conference focused on Ecological Assessment andManagement, along with four supporting sessions Ecological Informatics and Challenge, Behavioural Monitoring, Network Analysis and Risk Assessment, and Uncertainty and Global Change, with emphasis on methodology and issues at the organismal scale. During the conference, the knowledge of assessing and managing ecological data in applied fields had been shared among the participants, with emphasis on natural and anthropogenic stress factors, in order to predict and deliver management policies. Of particular interest was the problem of how to efficiently apply current and future computational methods to different scales and at various biological levels of organization, from genes to ecosystems. Generalizations as well as specifics, observed across different biological units, were further scrutinized by discussing data management, information processing, and ecosystem analysis. The Seoul Conference broadened the scope of ecological informatics, which is defined as an interdisciplinary framework for processing, archival, analysis, and synthesis of ecological data at and between all levels of ecosystems—from genes to ecological networks (Recknagel, 2003). It offers tools and approaches for managing ecological data and