IV-489 



From a strictly empirical or descriptive viewpoint, the emerging 

 new systems associated with man's activities are neither good nor 

 bad p_er se_; the determination of values relating to these modified 

 systems must be made within the existing or potential socioeconomic 

 and institutional frameworks. Values will be set in the market 

 place, which include all the mechanisms whereby society normally 

 measures the worth of goods, services and wages, which in turn 

 largely determine the pressures placed on estuarine systems. The 

 non-market system also determines values through the expression of 

 choices expressing social costs and benefits not measured in 

 standard economic terms. These two major components of 

 value-setting must be balanced if modification and ultimate 

 destruction of existing estuarine ecosystems is to be avoided. 



STRESS AND ESTUARINE ECOLOGY 



Estuarine ecological systems consist of populations of organisms, 

 flows of water, pathways of cycling chemical elements, and 

 organizing mechanisms which are all tightly interrelated. These 

 systems constantly adjust as the principal elements in their 

 operation change in character, quantity and composition. Thus, 

 estuarine ecological systems, as with all ecological communities, 

 are subject to change, and either successfully adapt, or are 

 replaced by other systems. 



