Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), PO Box 644, 48080 Bilbao, Spain.
Department of Experimental Limnology, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Alte Fischerhütte 2, 16775 Stechlin, Germany; Department of Ecology, Berlin Institute of Technology (TU Berlin), Ernst-Reuter-Platz 1, 10587 Berlin, Germany.
Sci Total Environ. 2017 Oct 1;595:294-302. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.188. Epub 2017 Apr 4.
Effective ecosystem management requires a robust methodology to analyse, remedy and avoid ecosystem damage. Here we propose that the overall conceptual framework and approaches developed over millennia in medical science and practice to diagnose, cure and prevent disease can provide an excellent template. Key principles to adopt include combining well-established assessment methods with new analytical techniques and restricting both diagnosis and treatment to qualified personnel at various levels of specialization, in addition to striving for a better mechanistic understanding of ecosystem structure and functioning, as well as identifying the proximate and ultimate causes of ecosystem impairment. In addition to applying these principles, ecosystem management would much benefit from systematically embracing how medical doctors approach and interview patients, diagnose health condition, select treatments, take follow-up measures, and prevent illness. Here we translate the overall conceptual framework from medicine into environmental terms and illustrate with examples from rivers how the systematic adoption of the individual steps proven and tested in medical practice can improve ecosystem management.
有效的生态系统管理需要一种强大的方法来分析、补救和避免生态系统的破坏。在这里，我们提出，医学科学和实践中数千年发展起来的整体概念框架和方法可以提供一个极好的模板。需要采用的关键原则包括将成熟的评估方法与新的分析技术相结合，以及将诊断和治疗仅限于各个专业水平的合格人员，此外还要努力更好地了解生态系统结构和功能的机械原理，并确定生态系统损害的直接和根本原因。除了应用这些原则之外，生态系统管理还将大大受益于系统地采用医生处理和访谈患者、诊断健康状况、选择治疗方法、采取后续措施以及预防疾病的方式。在这里，我们将整体概念框架从医学转化为环境术语，并通过河流的例子来说明如何采用经过医学实践验证的各个步骤来改善生态系统管理。
