ABSTRACT
The concept of ecosystem health dates back to 1788 in the writings of James Hutton, a geologist, who perceived the Earth as an integrated system (Rapport et al., 1995). It is also recorded in the 1940s composition by Aldo Leopold, a naturalist, who described unhealthy ecosystems and referred to “land sickness” (Callicott, 1992). The concept was revitalized as “ecosystem medicine” in the late 1970s and early 1980s (Rapport et al., 1979, 1981, 1985). This work formed the basis for subsequent principles and concepts of ecosystem health (Rapport, 1989; Rapport et al., 1995, 1998; Schaeffer et al., 1988). The process of assessing ecosystem health is complex and requires the establishment of indicators to differentiate healthy ecosystems from unhealthy ones, postulate the causes of sickness, and develop methods for subsequent preventive and rehabilitative measures (Rapport et al., 1995).
