Evaluation Methods
In order to quantify and evaluate the biological integrity of a system, the Index of Biological Integrity (IBI) was created. In this index the baseline biological integrity (its function before human influence) and the current functions of an ecosystem are measured against one another to evaluate how much of ecosystem’s function has been preserved. The IBI evaluates the ecosystem by utilizing biosurveys and comparing species richness, indicator taxa, hybrids, and invasive species. IBIs are used primarily to evaulate aquatic ecosystems even though one could technically apply any measurement of biological integrity to any natural ecosystem.
Read more about this topic: Biological Integrity
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“Evaluation is creation: hear it, you creators! Evaluating is itself the most valuable treasure of all that we value. It is only through evaluation that value exists: and without evaluation the nut of existence would be hollow. Hear it, you creators!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“I conceive that the leading characteristic of the nineteenth century has been the rapid growth of the scientific spirit, the consequent application of scientific methods of investigation to all the problems with which the human mind is occupied, and the correlative rejection of traditional beliefs which have proved their incompetence to bear such investigation.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)