The health of Minnesota's ecosystems and the quality of life of its citizens are interdependent. As the health of ecosystems declines, human health, welfare, and quality of life are threatened. The EII organizes environmental indicators by ecosystem and resource category to simplify the indicator selection process and allow us to develop more focused and useful indicators.
EII ecosystems are agricultural systems, forests, lakes, prairies, rivers and streams, and wetlands.
EII resource categories include air and groundwater. Although ecosystems are seldom discrete entities and ecosystem boundaries are often arbitrarily determined, they generally are distinctive in plant and animal species composition and the benefits they provide. Working landscapes often consist of many interconnected ecosystems. EII ecosystem profiles describe Minnesota's ecosystems and air and groundwater resources. In each ecosystem and resource profile we provide examples of environmental indicators that can be used to assess its status.