Spurring Innovation in Adaptation to Altered Fire Regimes in the Sonoran Desert
Project Overview
The biodiversity of the Sonoran Desert has been impacted by more frequent and more intense wildfires, as many of the plant species are unable to withstand nor regenerate after a severe fire. Researchers supported by this Southwest CASC project will aid managers by addressing knowledge gaps in ecological restoration, as well as the challenges that come with restoration in a rapidly changing system. This will be accomplished through a series of workshops that will bring together diverse stakeholders to develop and refine landscape models and management scenarios to better inform future management decisions.
Public Summary
The Sonoran Desert is an important global hotspot of biodiversity, due to rainfall patterns, elevational gradients, and its particular location on the continent. Yet frequent, severe fires threaten to reduce biodiversity as many Sonoran Desert plant species, including cacti and long-lived shrubs and trees, cannot withstand or regenerate after a severe fire. In the absence of active management intervention, more frequent fires have the potential to shift plant communities to less biodiverse, annual plant and early successional native plant dominated systems.
In response, managers are starting to adapt to altered fire regimes and vegetation conditions by reducing fuel loads at trailheads and along roads and trails with physical removal and herbicides. Additionally, novel techniques for preventing widespread fire, such as fire breaks with intensive invasive species control or weed barriers are being considered. However, in this time of rapid change, managers have not had the opportunity to fully explore the range of options available to them internally or with partners, nor weigh the benefits, efficacy, and costs of novel approaches. Furthermore, there are currently few tools to prevent and constrain the size of these fires, and limited ability and knowledge to support ecological restoration after fires occur.
To address these knowledge gaps, new modeling approaches are needed to synthesize existing social and ecological knowledge and test alternative management scenarios in response to the changing fire regime in the Sonoran Desert. To accomplish this, this project will engage diverse stakeholders to develop and refine landscape models and management scenarios during three 1.5-day in-person workshops in the northern Sonoran Desert. By bringing public land managers, non-profit partners, and other interested parties together, into a series of workshops combined with knowledge synthesis and state-of-the-art modeling techniques, we will be able to achieve a high level of knowledge exchange and produce tangible management strategies that will help manage and protect Arizona’s Sonoran Desert in face of climate and fire regime changes.
- Source: USGS Sciencebase (id: 677d7b47d34e009b43365880)
Project Overview
The biodiversity of the Sonoran Desert has been impacted by more frequent and more intense wildfires, as many of the plant species are unable to withstand nor regenerate after a severe fire. Researchers supported by this Southwest CASC project will aid managers by addressing knowledge gaps in ecological restoration, as well as the challenges that come with restoration in a rapidly changing system. This will be accomplished through a series of workshops that will bring together diverse stakeholders to develop and refine landscape models and management scenarios to better inform future management decisions.
Public Summary
The Sonoran Desert is an important global hotspot of biodiversity, due to rainfall patterns, elevational gradients, and its particular location on the continent. Yet frequent, severe fires threaten to reduce biodiversity as many Sonoran Desert plant species, including cacti and long-lived shrubs and trees, cannot withstand or regenerate after a severe fire. In the absence of active management intervention, more frequent fires have the potential to shift plant communities to less biodiverse, annual plant and early successional native plant dominated systems.
In response, managers are starting to adapt to altered fire regimes and vegetation conditions by reducing fuel loads at trailheads and along roads and trails with physical removal and herbicides. Additionally, novel techniques for preventing widespread fire, such as fire breaks with intensive invasive species control or weed barriers are being considered. However, in this time of rapid change, managers have not had the opportunity to fully explore the range of options available to them internally or with partners, nor weigh the benefits, efficacy, and costs of novel approaches. Furthermore, there are currently few tools to prevent and constrain the size of these fires, and limited ability and knowledge to support ecological restoration after fires occur.
To address these knowledge gaps, new modeling approaches are needed to synthesize existing social and ecological knowledge and test alternative management scenarios in response to the changing fire regime in the Sonoran Desert. To accomplish this, this project will engage diverse stakeholders to develop and refine landscape models and management scenarios during three 1.5-day in-person workshops in the northern Sonoran Desert. By bringing public land managers, non-profit partners, and other interested parties together, into a series of workshops combined with knowledge synthesis and state-of-the-art modeling techniques, we will be able to achieve a high level of knowledge exchange and produce tangible management strategies that will help manage and protect Arizona’s Sonoran Desert in face of climate and fire regime changes.
- Source: USGS Sciencebase (id: 677d7b47d34e009b43365880)