9 Ecosystem principles have applications Tempus item per se non est, sed rebus ab ipsis consequitur sensus, transactum quid sit in aevo, tumquae res instet, quid porro deinde sequantur. Time per se does not exist: the sense of what has been done in the past, what is in the present and what will be is embodied in things themselves. | 4 18 2007 11 44 e 199 9 Ecosystem principles have applications Tempus item per se non est sed rebus ab ipsis consequitur sensus transactum quid sit in aevo tumquae res instet quid porro deinde sequantur. Time per se does not exist the sense of what has been done in the past what is in the present and what will be is embodied in things themselves. Lucretius De Rerum Natura I 459-461 INTRODUCTION Orientors being holistic ecological indicators can give further information on the state of an ecosystem than can simply reductionistic indicators. Information coming from systematic or analytical approaches should never be neglected but holistic indicators allow us to understand if the system under study is globally following a path that takes the system to a better or to a worse state. And we can also compare macroscopic state of different systems which is impossible to do with isolated reductionistic information. So advantages of holistic indicators are additional aggregate information without losing information ability to compare ability to compare states of the same system at different times and possibility of understanding what new data types are needed for this approach. With indicator concepts like ecosystem health ecosystem integrity can find operational values using information coming from approaches like network analysis ecoexergy ascendency emergy evaluation and the other related indicators. Here we present several examples in which the systems perspective in ecology has been applied. The types and locations of systems in which they have been applied are very diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in Europe North and South America and Asia as are the goals of the research and management questions involved. Regardless of the setting or objective at its core holistic indicators always give a broader understanding of the amalgamation of the ecosystem parts into a context of the whole. 199 e 200 4 18 .
