For centuries the wellbeing of rural communities has depended on the health and resilience of local food systems. Over the last century many factors have contributed to declines in the availability and use of important traditional foods. In this thesis I have used black huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) as a case study through which I explore the varying roles humans play in influencing the health of a wild forest food. Black huckleberry is one of the most sought after wild berries in British Columbia (BC). Over the past few decades huckleberry pickers and forest managers have expressed concerns over the decreasing quality and availability of these berries. To understand the different roles humans play in the ecology of black huckleberry I interviewed 17 long-time huckleberry pickers and participated in berry picking trips – in the East Kootenay region of southeastern BC. I also reviewed the academic literature on huckleberry ecology. I found that huckleberry pickers have a deep knowledge of factors affecting the health of huckleberry patches. They identify both shifting social-economic and ecological conditions in their local forests as intrinsically linked with declining huckleberry availability and health. In contrast, the scientific literature primarily focuses on ecological conditions and forest management practices, ignoring or downplaying the relationship of berry pickers to huckleberry ecology and overall quality. There are significant cultural differences between the berry pickers’ and the scientists’ views of the factors impacting the health of the berry patch. I argue that an effective approach to addressing the problem of declining quality and availability must include the valuable insights berry pickers have on how social-ecological factors affect berry health. / Graduate

There is concern that climate change may cause mismatches between timing of flowering and activity of pollinators (phenology). However, concluding that mismatches will occur, and have serious consequences for pollination services, requires assumptions that have not yet been tested. I begin by discussing a set of these assumptions, bringing past research into the context of mismatch. Briefly, the assumptions are that 1) dates of first-flowering or emergence (DFFE) correctly describe phenology (and therefore mismatch); 2) differences in DFFE represent the magnitude of mismatch; 3) advancement of DFFE will be the primary phenological change; 4) shifts will be random and independent for each species; 5) populations of plants and pollinators are “bottom-up” regulated by their mutualistic interactions; 6) all interactions are of similar strength and importance; 7) dispersal, and the spatial context of phenological mismatches can be ignored; and ecological processes including 8) phenotypic plasticity and adaptive evolution of phenology, 9) competition and facilitation, and 10) emergence of novel interactions, will not affect mismatches. I then describe novel experiments, which could help to account for some of these assumptions, clarifying the existence and impacts of mismatches. Next, I present an original field experiment on factors affecting seed set in an alpine meadow in the Coast Range of British Columbia, Canada. I found evidence contradicting the assumption that seed set is primarily limited by pollination. My data highlight the roles of phenology, temperature (degree-days above 15°C, and frost hours), and interactions with pollinators (mutualists) and seed-predators (floral antagonists) in driving patterns of seed set. Seed set of early and late-flowering species responded differently to a 400m elevation gradient, which might be explained by phenology of bumble bees. My data suggest that the consequences of mismatch may be smallest for plants that are fly-pollinated and self-fertile. Non-selfing, bee-pollinated species might be more prone to reproductive limitation through mismatch (affected by snowmelt and cumulative degree-days). Plants that are limited by seed-predators might be negatively affected by warming temperatures with fewer frost hours, and extreme events such as late-season frosts and hail storms can prevent plants from setting seed entirely. Overall, my work emphasizes the importance of complementing theory, data-driven simulations, and meta-analyses with experiments carried out in the field. / Graduate