ICAR - Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, PO Box 1603, Kochi, 682018, Kerala, India.
Coastal Aquaculture Authority, Integrated Office Complex for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department, Government of India, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, 600 035, India.
Environ Monit Assess. 2022 Nov 10;195(1):95. doi: 10.1007/s10661-022-10692-7.
Health of an ecosystem is very much important as we depend on its goods and services for our existence. Because of this, we need to continuously monitor its health for human benefit and for identifying areas for improvement of our natural systems. The present study tries to assess the condition of a coastal ecosystem within the Vembanad Lake, Kerala, India, using key water quality parameters at micro-level. Principal component analysis identified the minimum required water quality dataset for further analysis and was scored using linear scoring functions. The weighted additive method was used to integrate the individual scores to arrive at a final score representing the ecosystem health. Spline interpolation was applied to develop the ecosystem health map of the study area. Using this method, 35.8% area of the aquatic ecosystem studied was characterized as good, 32.2% as moderate, 26.2% as fair and 5.8% as poor. The assessment results can help the policymakers/managers to make appropriate decisions for the better management of the coastal ecosystems studied. Moreover, this methodology can be replicated for the assessment of coastal regions with similar ecosystem characteristics.
生态系统的健康非常重要，因为我们的生存依赖于它的物质和服务。因此，我们需要不断监测其健康状况，以造福人类，并确定改善自然系统的领域。本研究试图使用微观层面的关键水质参数来评估印度喀拉拉邦 Vembanad 湖内的沿海生态系统的状况。主成分分析确定了进一步分析所需的最低水质数据集，并使用线性评分函数进行评分。加权加和法用于整合各个分数，得出代表生态系统健康状况的最终分数。样条插值法用于开发研究区域的生态系统健康图。使用这种方法，研究的水生生态系统有 35.8%的区域被描述为良好，32.2%为中等，26.2%为一般，5.8%为差。评估结果可以帮助决策者/管理者做出适当的决策，以更好地管理研究中的沿海生态系统。此外，这种方法可以复制用于评估具有类似生态系统特征的沿海地区。
