Relative effects of the co-occurrence of CAs and CEs are addressed in part by evaluating ecological status of CEs within a given assessment scenario (e.g., current conditions). The approach to evaluating ecological status was based on existing methods for gauging relative ecological integrity . “Ecological integrity” is variously defined as the ability of an ecological system to support and maintain a community of organisms that have the species composition, diversity, and functional organization comparable to those of natural habitats within the ecoregion. Therefore, one of the early tasks in the assessment was to characterize reference conditions for each CE, including natural composition, structure, and dynamic processes . Additionally, [...]
