We introduce a modified form of exergy named eco-exergy as an ecological indicator. Exergy of detritus and of various organisms are found based upon the definition of eco-exergy. Eco-exergy measures a system's deviation from chemical equilibrium. It is, therefore, crucial to find the concentration of detritus and the various organisms at chemical equilibrium which is possible by the calculation of the probability to form detritus and the various organisms by chemical equilibrium. It implies that the probability to form proteins with the right amino acid sequence must be determined by the use of the amount of coding genes. It is stressed that what we determine by this method of exergy calculation is a relative eco-exergy index. It is not possible to find the eco-exergy of entire ecosystems, because they are far too complex to allow us to know all the details of an ecosystem. The eco-exergy indices have been found in a few cases to demonstrate the usefulness of the method and to show how the exergy indices can be translated to applicable ecological information. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.