APPROXIMATING NATURES VARIATION - SELECTING AND USING REFERENCE INFORMATION IN RESTORATION ECOLOGY

Restoration ecologists use reference information to define restoration goals, determine the restoration potential of sites, and evaluate the success of restoration efforts. Basic to the selection and use of ref erence information is the need to understand temporal and spatial vari ation in nature. This is a challenging task: variation is likely to be scale dependent; ecosystems vary in complex ways at several spatial a nd temporal scales; and there is an important interaction between spat ial and temporal variation. The two most common forms of reference inf ormation are historical data from the site to be restored and contempo rary data from reference sites (sites chosen as good analogs of the si te to be restored). Among the problems of historical data are unmeasur ed factors that confound the interpretation of historical changes obse rved. Among the problems of individual reference sites is the difficul ty of finding or proving a close match in all relevant ecological dime nsions. Approximating and understanding ecological variation will requ ire multiple sources of information. Restoration, by its inherently ex perimental nature, can further the understanding of the distribution, causes, and functions of nature's variation.