Ecosystem Indicators
Scientists’ interest in choosing appropriate indicators for evaluating the ecosystem health has grown over the last two decades and nowadays ecological indicators are used widely to communicate information about ecosystems and the impact human activity has on them. Indicators are usually used to track negative change or degradation of an ecosystem. They often demonstrate damage that has already occurred and provide little information about future degradation. \citep{Hattam2015}
For better results and precise outcomes in the evaluation process, indicators must be carefully selected, in order to represent the various aspects of an ecosystem. Any indicator should be sensitive enough to provide an early warning of change, be able to detect changes over a wide geographical area and capable of providing a continuous assessment over many different stressors. Furthermore, an indicator should be relatively independent of sample size, easy and cost-effective to measure, collect and calculate and able to understand the differences between the natural cycles or trends and the human induced stressors. \citep{Rombouts_2013}