Normalized ecosystem strain

Originally limited to ellipsoids, the use of Mahalonobis distances allows the use of more variables as the confidence ellipsoid can be transformed to a confidence or tolerance hypersphere. These ideas were examined using the microecosystem test method developed by Kersting for the examination of multispecies systems. These three-compartment microecosystems are comprised of an autotrophic, herbivore, and decomposer subsystems that are connected by tubing and pumps. Although relatively simple and small, these systems are operable over a number of years. 

Several variable measurements are obtained weekly for these experiments  

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Kersting, K. 1988. Normalized ecosystem strain in micro-ecosystems using different sets of state variables. Verb. Int. Verein. Limnol. 23, 1641-1646. 

Normalized Ecosystem Strain (NES) (Figure 11.25) was developed by Kersting (1984, 1988) as a means of describing the impacts of several materials to the... 

What is normalized ecosystem strain What did Kersting find occurring with the NES as time increased after a perturbation ... 

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