Ecological Integrity
The degree to which an ecosystem maintains its natural structure, function, and biodiversity without human degradation or fragmentation.
A measure of how well an ecosystem retains its natural characteristics—species composition, physical structure, and ecological processes—despite human influence. It reflects the health and resilience of a landscape, assessed through indicators like biodiversity, habitat connectivity, and absence of pollution or fragmentation.
What this means in real life
A forest stream with native fish, clear water, and intact riparian vegetation has high ecological integrity; the same stream downstream of a dam, choked with invasive plants and devoid of native species, has low integrity.
What it isn’t
It is not simply the absence of human activity. A pristine-looking meadow left untouched may still lack ecological integrity if invasive species dominate or key ecological processes have been disrupted by upstream changes.
Commonly misused online
Often conflated with 'wilderness' or 'pristine nature'—people assume high ecological integrity means zero human presence, when it actually describes functional health regardless of past or present human interaction.