Note: Cover -- Half-title -- Series-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Contributors -- Preface -- CHAPTER ONE: The evolution of ecosystem ecology -- Introduction -- Origins of the concept of the ecosystem -- Holistic frameworks for exploring complex, interacting systems: the contributions of Lindeman and Elton -- The International Biological Programme -- Systems-analysis approaches -- Resilience thinking -- A move towards more inclusive approaches to ecosystem ecology -- What can be learned from the history of ecosystem ecology? -- Acknowledgements -- References -- CHAPTER TWO: Linking population, community and ecosystem ecology within mainstream ecology -- Introduction -- An overview of population-, community- and ecosystem-level modelling approaches -- Population-level models -- Community-level models -- Ecosystem-level models -- Model evaluation -- How do ecologists evaluate models? -- Statistical evaluation of models -- Suggested approaches for scaling between population and ecosystem ecology -- Linearised, equilibrium approaches -- Aggregating state variables -- Aggregating parameters -- Isolated models for components of a complex community -- Final thoughts and remaining challenges -- Acknowledgements -- References -- CHAPTER THREE: Thermodynamic approaches to ecosystem behaviour: fundamental principles with case studies from forest succession and management -- Introduction -- Historical development and motivation -- Definitions and terms -- Systems science -- Physical principles -- Classical thermodynamics -- Statistical thermodynamics (statistical mechanics) -- Information theory -- Ecosystem applications -- The Strategy of Ecosystem Development (SED) -- Ascendancy -- Ecological Law of Thermodynamics and Life as the Second Law -- Critiques and a simple reformulation -- Critique of the Strategy of Ecosystem Development. , Critique of ascendancy -- Critique of the Ecological Law of Thermodynamics -- Reconciling system and individual perspectives: ecological statistical mechanics -- Application: global forest management -- References -- CHAPTER FOUR: Ecosystem health -- Introduction: origins and development of the ecosystem health concept -- Approaches for assessing ecosystem health -- Indicators and indices derived from direct measurement -- Ecological indicators -- Multimetric indices -- Problems with the use of biological monitoring and indicators -- Using models to assess ecosystem health -- Odum's conjectures and mass-balance approaches -- Adaptive cycles and resilience -- System-level metrics from mass-balance models -- Interdisciplinary indicators of ecosystem health -- The HEHI approach -- MEHTA (Monitoring of Ecosystem Health by Trends Analysis): an alternative interdisciplinary indicator -- Application of the MEHTA approach: Ythan catchment case study -- Conclusions and recommendations -- Is the ecosystem health concept valuable? -- Operational approaches to assessing ecosystem health -- Gaps in knowledge -- Acknowledgements -- References -- CHAPTER FIVE: Interdisciplinarity in ecosystems research: developing social robustness in environmental science -- Introduction -- Being interdisciplinary - rationales and definitions -- Multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinarity -- Science and society: developing social robustness in ecosystems research -- Contextualising ecology -- Ecology and the public -- Conclusions -- References -- CHAPTER SIX: The links between biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being -- Introduction: managing ecosystems for people -- Ecosystems services and the Ecosystem Approach -- Ecosystem service typologies -- Service cascades -- Evolving service typologies -- Biodiversity, ecosystem function and service output. , Species complementarity -- The importance of functional groups and functional traits -- Alien vs. native species -- The insurance value of biodiversity -- Biodiversity and social-ecological ecosystems -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgement -- References -- CHAPTER SEVEN: Ecosystem ecology and environmental management -- Introduction -- Environmental management, biodiversity and ecosystem sustainability -- Recognising Darwin's Tangled Bank -- Sustainability and the balance of nature -- An ecosystem-based approach -- Concluding remarks -- References -- Index.