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Indicators of Ecological Integrity

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Lake Restoration Handbook

Abstract

Freshwater Ecological Integrity (EI) incorporates the concepts of ecosystem “health”, unimpaired structure, composition and function and a capacity for self-renewal and, as such, it is a holistic advance over standard water quality metrics for assessing lake condition. In the New Zealand freshwater context, EI has been defined as a composite of nativeness, pristineness, diversity and resilience to perturbations. Measurable lake attributes have been proposed and calibrated against pre-impaired “reference” conditions for different lake types. Related to EI, LakeSPI (Submerged Plant Indicator) also assesses lake ecological condition and has been calibrated for a wide range of New Zealand lakes. These EI approaches are thus able to measure departures from reference conditions (or other defined endpoints) and for all these reasons, EI approaches are beneficial for setting lake restoration goals or targets and for tracking the success and progress of restoration activities. Recently, EI approaches have been making inroads with regard to environmental policy and monitoring. This chapter discusses the current development and future possibilities for using EI to help restore degraded lakes.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Marc Schallenberg

  2. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Mary D. de Winton

  3. Cawthron Institute, Nelson, New Zealand

    David J. Kelly

Authors
  1. Marc Schallenberg
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  2. Mary D. de Winton
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  3. David J. Kelly
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Correspondence to Marc Schallenberg .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

    David P. Hamilton

  2. Environmental Research Institute, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Kevin J. Collier

  3. NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research), Hamilton, New Zealand

    John M. Quinn

  4. NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research), Christchurch, New Zealand

    Clive Howard-Williams

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Schallenberg, M., de Winton, M.D., Kelly, D.J. (2018). Indicators of Ecological Integrity. In: Hamilton, D., Collier, K., Quinn, J., Howard-Williams, C. (eds) Lake Restoration Handbook. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93043-5_11

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