Past and future fire dynamics: implications for central arctic caribou and dependent communities

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Ecologists and natural resources managers often focus on patterns not processes, short duration time scales, and isolated commodities or species. A failure to address interacting ecological processes at meaningful scales limits our ability to develop predictions of future environmental change. This lack of understanding of long-term ecosystem dynamics is especially relevant to Canada's north where ecosystems are under pressure from a range of human developments and the potential effects of climate change may be extreme. Such negative interactions might be a factor in the current decline of the country's central Arctic barren-ground caribou. Most herds have declined by more than 50% and management agencies and communities are struggling for understanding and solutions.