2012; Götmark 2013) . Dunwiddie and Bakker (2011) identified habitat loss and fragmentation, successional transition from open to forested conditions, and invasive species as the greatest threats to Garry oak ecosystems. They felt that the future challenges to be tackled by the management and scientific community include the reestablishment of prescribed burning, aboriginal plant harvest techniques (i.e., Camas bulbs), the need for climate change models that addressed

Garry oak ecosystem adaptation at a scale relevant to land managers, and the selection of sites for restoration based on knowledge of their natural range of variability while being cognisant SN-38 research buy of the emergence of novel ecosystems. The role of climate change on these ecosystems has also been examined (Bachelet et al. 2011; Pellatt et al. 2012), highlighting the importance of securing habitat that will be suitable for Garry oak ecosystems in the future if they are to persist amongst a populated, fragmented landscape, but it may be that more interventionist measures will be required to assist with Garry oak ecosystem migration. Nested in these conservation and scenario-based activities, there is a need to understand the natural range of variability of ecosystems, ecological

trajectories, and why an understanding of historical ecology and paleoecology is necessary for the long-term success of conservation and ecological restoration efforts (Delcourt and Delcourt 1997; Bjorkman and Vellend 2010; Dunwiddie et al. 2011; Selleck EPZ015938 McCune et al. 2013). Dunwiddie et al. (2011) in a recent selleck kinase inhibitor overview on Garry oak ecosystems (Special Issue Northwest Science Volume 85, 2011) highlight Benzatropine that studies examining the historical ecology and stand dynamics of Garry oak ecosystems

(e.g., Gedalof et al. 2006; Pellatt et al. 2007; Smith 2007; Sprenger and Dunwiddie 2011) “are beginning to provide the in-depth understanding of historical conditions that is a key first step in mapping out restoration goals and strategies”. Building on this idea, one of the key challenges for ecosystem scientists will be to integrate the longer fire and vegetation history records based on pollen and charcoal analysis (McCoy 2006) with the more recent fire and stand age/structure based on dendroecological studies, and emerging work based on soil and phytolith analyses (Hegarty et al. 2011; McCune and Pellatt 2013). Studies examining historical changes of Garry oak ecosystems and how these changes are related to a number of complex factors such as human land-use, climate, forest fire and stand dynamics will greatly enhance our interpretation of ecosystem structure and function. In addition, a better understanding of historic aboriginal land-use is also crucial for current ecosystem management and restoration efforts.