Ecosystem Health

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A healthy ecosystem is one that is intact in its physical, chemical, and biological components and their interrelationships, such that it is resilient to withstand change and stressors. It is a system that is not experiencing the abnormal growth or decline of native species, the concentration of persistent contaminants, or drastic anthropogenic changes to its landscape or ecological processes.

A healthy and diverse ecosystem is one that provides abundant and beneficial services to its constituents, such as food, water, shelter, economic livelihood, recreation, and natural beauty. Further information on the concept of ecosystem health can be found at the website of the International Society for Ecosystem Health. An ecosystem is composed of plant and animal communities and the physical environment in which they live. The practice of ecosystem health is the investigation of the components of an ecosystem which render it adaptable and resilient enough to withstand perturbation, and then both the transfer of that understanding to ecosystem stewards, who use the information to enact appropriate policies and actions, as well as the transfer of questions and needs for information from the stakeholders to the scientists.

Improving and maintaining ecosystem health can be likened to the DNA double helix. The DNA double helix consists of two intertwining strands, each strand composed of complementary molecular building blocks, and the two strands held permanently intertwined via chemical bonds, or "glue." The DNA double helix encodes the instructions for the components and processes of all living things. In a similar way, the ecosystem health double helix consists of one strand, Science, and another strand, Action, bound together into a helix via Translation, the "glue." The ecosystem health double helix thus encodes both the scientific information, and the tools and methods for reversing and amending severe stressors on an ecosystem, whether it is marine or terrestrial.

The Journal of Biology and Today’s World is a leading academic research journal, which publishes scholarly articles in the field of medicine and biology. This journal publishes the finest peer-reviewed research in all aspects of medicine and biology keeping in mind the originality, importance, accessibility, timeliness, elegance, and startling conclusions.

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