• Establishing research priorities. 



• Comprehensive planning. 



• Assessment and prediction of environ- 

 mental impacts. 



• Developing mitigation procedures and 

 alternatives for minimizing environmental 

 impacts. 



APPROACH 



Ecosystem characterization is a structured 

 approach to the synthesis of diverse environmental 

 information. To be effective, each step of the 

 process must be followed' sequentially as outlined 

 in figure 2. 



ECOSYSTEM DESCRIPTION AND BOUNDARIES 



The ecosystem is a basic unit for describing 

 natural systems, and has become widely accepted 

 by scientists and resource managers. A description 

 of an ecosystem includes: 



• Functional relationships between organisms 

 and their physical environment. 



• Plant and animal assemblages, which are 

 relatively homogenous response units, 

 often referred to as communities. 



• Open systems through which energy and 

 matter are continuously exchanged. 



This latter principle has made it difficult to 

 delineate the precise boundaries of a given system. 



Preliminary 

 Development 

 of Concep- 

 tual f^odel 



Identify 



User 



Groups 



Identify 

 Information 

 Needs for 

 User Groups 



Basic Criteria 

 for Data 

 Collection 



Identify 

 Information 

 Needs & Data 

 Form Required 

 for Ecological 

 Model and 

 Reports 



Identify 

 Available 

 Data 

 Sources 



Data 

 Collection 



Examine Data for 

 Applicability to 

 Cbaracterization 

 of System 



Interpret 

 Existing 

 Data 



Evaluate 

 Degree of 

 Resolution 



Revise 

 Methodology 



Preliminary 

 Community 

 Characterization 



Final Ecosystem 

 Characteriza- 

 tion Report 



OUTPUT 



1) Conceptual Model 



2) Ecosystem Characterization 

 Report 



3i Computer Data Base 

 4) Data Source Appendix 



Figure 2. Ecosystem characterization approach. 



