"Bioindicators & Biomonitors" aims at giving a state-of-the-art overview of the current knowledge of how and where organisms can be used to assess environmental and ecosystem quality. The principles of deriving indicators from presence and performance of organisms in ecosystems, and definitions that are used are given. A very important question to be answered in the book deals with the kind of information that can be obtained from biological indicators and the advantages and disadvantage of their applications. Biological indicators can be used when easy to measure, and allow for distinguishing between different state of the ecosystem by their discriminative power. Furthermore there must be a relationship between the presence and performance of the (group of) organisms used in the indicators and the kind of information to be obtained about the ecosystems. They can be used for assessment of ecosystem and environmental quality and for evaluation of management measures and environmental stress. The use of bioindicators/biomonitors has developed from linear assessment (e.g. concentration of an element within an organism to deposition of the element) to integrated thinking on ecosystem levels. Therefore new indicators are being developed.
