Prickly questions: What is fire’s place in the Sonoran desert scrub community?

Heather Leach; Mary Lata; Kristin L. Zouhar; Heather Leach

Treesearch

Prickly questions: What is fire’s place in the Sonoran desert scrub community?

Informally Refereed

Authors:

Heather Leach, Mary Lata, Kristin L. Zouhar, Heather Leach

Year:

2024

Type:

Science Bulletins and Newsletters

Station:

Rocky Mountain Research Station

Source:

Science You Can Use (in 5 Minutes), September 2024. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 2 p.

Download (PDF 2.63 MB)

Download (PDF 2.63 MB): https://research.fs.usda.gov/download/treesearch/67745.pdf

Abstract

The desert is hot, dry, and prickly … the perfect combination for wildfires. So, shouldn’t desert plants be used to fire? It turns out that Sonoran desert scrub communities, home to the iconic saguaro cactus, are vulnerable to frequent large or severe wildfires and may not recover for centuries, if at all. Recent publications by Rocky Mountain Research Station ecologists discuss how desert plants respond to fires, and how big, how often, and how hot fires burn in this ecosystem. The Fire Regime Synthesis about Sonoran desert scrub communities and associated Species Reviews are published in the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) - an online searchable database of research syntheses about how fire affects ecosystems and individual species.

Keywords

fire, Sonoran Desert, Fire Effects Information System (FEIS), Fire Regime Synthesis

Citation

Leach, Heather; Lata, Mary; Zouhar, Kristin; Leach, Heather. 2024. Prickly questions: What is fire’s place in the Sonoran desert scrub community? Science You Can Use (in 5 Minutes), September 2024. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 2 p.