ABSTRACT
Describing agroecosystems, assessing their sustainability and health, and assessing progress toward community goals and objectives has become of great interest to researchers, development agents, and communities. The agroecosystem health approach proposes that these descriptions and assessments can be achieved using a group of carefully chosen indicators (Rapport and Regier, 1980; Gosselin et al., 1991; Lightfoot and Noble, 1993; Rapport, 1992; National Research Council, 1993; Cairns et al., 1993; Izac and Swift, 1994; Winograd, 1994; Dumanski, 1994; Rapport et al., 1985; Ayres, 1996; Smit et al., 1998). There are numerous definitions of what constitutes an indicator (Boyle, 1998; Boyle et al., 2000). Gallopin (1994a) and Smit et al. (1998) described indicators as measurements that can be taken for a given complex phenomenon to document how it changes over time, how it varies across space, and how it responds to external factors. In terms of an agroecosystem, an indicator has been defined as a measurable feature that singly, or in combination with others, provides managerially or scientifically useful evidence of ecosystem status (Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment [CCME], 1996) relative to a predefined set of goals.
