Annual and perennial plant vegetation was sampled following a controlled burn (1981) and a wildfire (1980) in the Upper Sonoran Desert near Phoenix, Ariz. Perennial plant composition 1 year after controlled burning included 32% shoot survivors, 30% sprouters, and 38% seeders, mostly brittle bush (Encelia farinosa1). Several invader species, stickweed (Stephanomeria exigua) and four o'clock (Mirabilis bigelovii) were important seeders, indicating that there may be postfire successional communities in the Upper Sonoran Desert. Most cacti were fire killed or died eventually from fire damage. Total annual plant density decreased (69%) while biomass increased significantly (131%) on burned areas. Red brome (Bromus rubens) was essentially eliminated 1 year after fire while schismus (Schismus arabicus) and Indian wheat (Plantago spp.) increased in both density and biomass. Fire appears to enhance rangeland productivity in the Upper Sonoran Desert. This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information. Migrated from OJS platform August 2020
Scholarly peer-reviewed articles published by the Society for Range Management. Access articles on a rolling-window basis from vol. 1, 1948 up to 5 years from the current year. Formerly Journal of Range Management (JRM). More recent content is available by subscription from SRM.