A 30-Year Chronosequence of Burned Areas in Arizona— Effects of Wildfires on Vegetation in Sonoran Desert Tortoise (Gopherus Morafkai) Habitats
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Prepared in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management A 30-Year Chronosequence of Burned Areas in Arizona— Effects of Wildfires on Vegetation in Sonoran Desert Tortoise (Gopherus morafkai) Habitats Open-File Report 2015-1060 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Cover: Photograph showing burned habitat for the Sonoran Desert Tortoise (Gopherus morafkai) within the perimeter of the Gost Fire, Maricopa County, Arizona. This site burned in 2005 and is representative of burned areas in the Arizona Upland subdivision of the Sonoran Desert. The burned saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) is evident by scarring (beige) and charring (blackened) at the base and is surrounded by several species of short-lived perennials, as well as a few long-lived perennials that persisted through the fire. Photograph taken by Felicia Chen, U.S. Geological Survey, October 24, 2013. A 30-Year Chronosequence of Burned Areas in Arizona— Effects of Wildfires on Vegetation in Sonoran Desert Tortoise (Gopherus morafkai) Habitats By Daniel F. Shryock, Todd C. Esque, and Felicia C. Chen Prepared in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management Open-File Report 2015-1060 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Department of the Interior SALLY JEWELL, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey Suzette M. Kimball, Acting Director U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2015 For more information on the USGS—the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment—visit http://www.usgs.gov/ or call 1–888–ASK–USGS (1–888–275–8747). For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, visit http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod/. To order USGS information products, visit http://store.usgs.gov/. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this information product, for the most part, is in the public domain, it also may contain copyrighted materials as noted in the text. Permission to reproduce copyrighted items must be secured from the copyright owner. Suggested citation: Shryock, D.F., Esque, T.C., and Chen, F.C., A 30-year chronosequence of burned areas in Arizona—Effects of wildfires on vegetation in Sonoran Desert Tortoise (Gopherus morafkai) habitats: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2015-1060, 61 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20151060. ISSN 2331-1258 (online) Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 1 Sonoran Desert Tortoises and Wildfire ................................................................................................................... 1 Environmental Determinants of Vegetation Recovery Following Desert Wildfires ................................................... 2 Project Objectives ................................................................................................................................................... 4 Methods ...................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Study Areas ............................................................................................................................................................ 4 Site Selection .......................................................................................................................................................... 5 Vegetation Sampling ............................................................................................................................................... 8 Perennial Plant Species ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Invasive Plant Species ........................................................................................................................................ 8 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................................................................... 8 Environmental Variables ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Species and Growth-Form Response to Fire ...................................................................................................... 9 Response of Vegetation Structure to Fire .......................................................................................................... 10 Landscape Scale Vegetation Recovery ............................................................................................................. 11 Wildfire Effects on Sonoran Desert Tortoise Food and Cover Species ............................................................. 11 Results ...................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Species and Growth-Form Response to Fire ........................................................................................................ 12 Invasive Species ............................................................................................................................................... 20 Response of Vegetation Structure to Fire ............................................................................................................. 20 Landscape Scale Vegetation Recovery ................................................................................................................ 23 Long-Term Influences of Fire on Desert Tortoise Habitat ..................................................................................... 26 Discussion ................................................................................................................................................................ 31 Species and Growth-Form Responses to Fire ...................................................................................................... 33 Vegetation Recovery from Fire at the Structural and Landscape Scales .............................................................. 34 Perspectives on Post-Fire Vegetation Change and the Sonoran Desert Tortoise ................................................. 36 Conclusions and Future Directions ........................................................................................................................... 38 Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................................................... 39 References Cited ...................................................................................................................................................... 40 Products Resulting From This Cooperative Effort ..................................................................................................... 46 Appendix A. Model Averaged Coefficients ............................................................................................................... 47 Appendix B. Sonoran Desert Tortoise Food and Cover Plants ................................................................................ 49 Appendix C. Cover and Density for Perennial Plant Species ................................................................................... 53 Appendix D. Frequencies of Invasive Annual Species Observed ............................................................................ 61 iii Figures Figure 1. Perimeters of fires sampled in the Sonoran Desert ecoregion of central Arizona, 2013 ............................ 7 Figure 2. Examples of fire boundary development from remote sensing of the White Canyon fire (1995; left image) and the Nuke fire (2005; right image) ........................................................................................................................ 7 Figure 3. Principal response curves showing the rate of change relative to unburned areas as a function of Time- Since-Fire (TSF) in burned (a) species composition and (b) growth form composition ............................................ 15 Figure 4. Effect plot displays for modal-averaged parameters in candidate model sets predicting cover of individual growth forms with respect to fire, topography, climate, or Time-Since-Fire .............................................. 18 Figure 5. Effect plot displays of model-averaged parameters in candidate model sets for (a) vegetation percentage cover, and (b) vegetation density with respect to burn status, topography, climate, or Time-Since-Fire ....................................................................................................................................................... 22 Figure 6. Effect plot displays of model-averaged parameters in candidate model sets for average vegetation height with respect to burn status, topography, climate, or time-since-fire ............................................. 23 Figure 7. Linear regression models comparing the influence of Time-Since-Fire (TSF, shown as year of fire) and environmental variables on the ratios of burned-to- unburned vegetation cover (a), height (b), and density (c) ...............................................................................................................................................................