The State of the Nation’s Ecosystems: Measuring the Lands, Waters, and Living Resources of the United States

Review: The State of the Nation's Ecosystems: Measuring the Lands, Waters, and Living Resources of the United States By the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment Reviewed by Dan Tufford University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment. The State of the Nation's Ecosystems: Measuring the Lands, Waters, and Living Resources of the United States. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 270 pp. ISBN 0-521-52572-1 (paperback). US$25.00 In modern Western culture, ecosystem awareness has evolved from a somewhat obscure scientific concept a few decades ago, to its current state in the vernacular of a large proportion of the population. Today it is increasingly hard to find someone who does not have idea of what ecosystem is, however fragmentary or inaccurate the understanding may be. Yet even with increased awareness it is impossible to state with any certainty and credibility the current overall status of our most critical ecosystems. Some of the reason for this can be attributed to the origins of ecology in the reductionist sciences. Ecosystem status indicators are integrative measures. This way of looking at data seems unnatural or even erroneous to many investigators. Yet the National Academy of Sciences and others asserted the need for indicators at various scales several years ago. Federal agencies, especially the Environmental Protection Agency, have been actively funding work to develop ecosystem indicators that will be useful for policy development. The federal agencies encourage use of existing data, but also facilitate collecting new data as needed to develop indicators that would be otherwise unavailable. In 1995 the Heinz Center began alternative approach. They organized a large group of people with expertise in particular ecosystems, developed a list of indicators for each ecosystem, then assembled available data to quantify the indicators. The result is The State of the Nation's Ecosystems: Measuring the Lands, Waters, and Living Resources of the United States. This volume is clear in its stated purpose and never strays. The report aspires to be an authoritative, comprehensive, and succinct overview of the natural economy of the United States. It was prepared as a multi-year collaboration among dozens of experts in various fields, who were organized into broad-scale ecosystem work groups. In the composition of the group membership and the methodologies used for data collection and analysis, the organizers sought credibility and objectivity in the final report. This report is expected to be the first in a continuing series, with a repeating interval of approximately five years. Thus a process is now in place to provide regular and credible reports to decision makers and the public at large. The overall objective was to use existing data to develop a set of indicators of ecosystem state. Indicators were developed at the national level, then for ecosystems grouped as coasts and oceans, farmlands, forests, fresh waters, grasslands and shrublands, and urban and suburban lands. Within each broad category are indicators for system dimensions, chemical and physical conditions, biological components, and human uses. …