Mojave and Sonoran Desert
Geographic area and background
The Mojave Desert geographic region of the California Fire Science Delivery Consortium encompasses the vast majority of the Mojave Desert within California and Nevada. It also includes the Colorado Desert sub-region of the Sonoran Desert within California. The small amount of the Mojave Desert located in Arizona and Utah, and the majority of the Sonoran Desert located in Arizona, are under the purview of the Southwest Fire Science Delivery Consortium. In addition, the portions of the Great Basin located within eastern California are under the purview of the Great Basin Fire Science Delivery Consortium.
The primary focus of the Mojave Desert subregional group is to transfer recent desert fire management research to land managers. To accomplish this, the Desert group will use input and assistance from local partnerships to develop research briefs and syntheses, as well as lead field-based tours, symposia, and trainings.
Please contact Scott Abella with any questions, suggestions, or requests for topics to be covered in research briefs by the Mojave Desert team.
Need to reach someone?
Mojave and Sonoran Desert Coordinator
Research Associate
University of Nevada-Las Vegas
lindsay.chiquoine@unlv.edu
Sonoran and Mojave Desert Lead
Assistant Professor, Restoration Ecology
School of Life Sciences
University of Nevada Las Vegas
4505 S. Maryland Parkway
Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-4004
scott.abella@unlv.edu
https://sites.google.com/site/scottrabella/
Phone: 702-774-1445
Upcoming Events Related to the Desert Region
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Research Briefs & Synthesis
Supported by the Clark County (Nevada) Desert Conservation Program and the California Fire Science Consortium, we completed a status of knowledge synthesis of restoration practices aimed at enhancing recovery of damaged habitats in the Mojave and western Sonoran Desert, some of the driest locations in North America.
It is not well understood whether desert plantings can facilitate recruitment of other natives (or mainly just non-natives), or whether facilitation changes through time as a restoration site matures. To address these uncertainties, we partnered with the National Park Service to study plant community change below planted perennials and in interspaces (areas between perennials) during 12 years (2009-2020) in Joshua Tree National Park, California, in the southern Mojave Desert.
This brief compares the restoration treatments of outplanting and two abiotic treatments on disturbed sites in the Sonoran Desert of southeastern California. Overall results suggest that multiple treatment types, including abiotic treatments, can be implemented as a bet-hedging approach to achieve restoration benefits even if some treatments may fail.
The objective of this study was to assess feasibility of developing regression equations using a fast, non-destructive measure (cover) to estimate aboveground biomass for red brome, a widespread non-native annual grass in the Mojave Desert.
On a burned site in the northeastern Mojave Desert that is conservation-priority habitat for federally listed desert tortoises, a field experiment was conducted to test different treatments for outplanting greenhouse-propagated seedlings of the native perennial brittlebush (Encelia virginensis).
Authors studied the recovery of plant communities, soil properties, soil biocrusts and grass as plant fuel on 31 wildfires in the eastern Mojave Desert that had between 1980 and 2007.
Non-native annual grasses, such as red brome (Bromus rubens), have increased the amount and continuity of fine fuels in drylands of the southwestern U.S. Where herbicide is not allowed or may have undesirable non-target effects, one of the alternative treatments that has been proposed and used in more mesic habitats is carbon addition.
Assisted natural regeneration (ANR) is an alternative aimed at encouraging site conditions favorable for natural regeneration through actions such as alleviating limitations on viable seed production, germination, and seedling survival. Two ANR approaches were tested on the Mojave Desert foundation species, the creosote bush.
A recent study in press with Ecological Monographs collected and analyzed a long-term data set of fluctuations in perennial plant communities in the eastern Mojave Desert. During the 37-year period, most measures of the native perennial plant community changed temporally.
National guidance is provided for new and updated invasive plant management plans that meet federal standards
To revegetate disturbed desert lands, practitioners often reestablish fertile islands as a first step in restoring native plants and associated fauna on disturbed desert sites. This research brief discusses the pros and cons of this approach considering native and non-native species.
For desert shrubland species that have evolved without fire, the introduction of a grass-fire, positive feedback cycle is particularly problematic. This brief discusses work done by researchers who modeled the grass-fire cycle for non-fire-adapted desert shrublands under three sets of climate conditions.
Study results from arid regions in Southern California show how fire trends differ based on unique sets of circumstances. This brief discuses how combinations of direct drivers (like powerline and roadside ignitions), indirect drivers (like invasive grasses, air pollution, and landscape fragmentation terrestrial intactness) and unknown factors cause diversity in fire trends.
In a collaborative project funded by the non-profit Desert Tortoise Council with Natural Resource Conservation LLC, the authors synthesized published literature and practitioner’s experiences to develop best-management practices for habitats of desert tortoises.
Collaboratively with the National Park Service, the authors performed a study along Northshore Road in Lake Mead National Recreation Area (eastern Mojave Desert, Nevada) to develop biocrust restoration strategies. Results and management recommendations for the most effective restoration methods are discussed.
This journal article provides a decision framework that integrates fire regime components, plant growth form, and survival attributes to predict how plants will respond to fires and how fires can be prescribed to enhance the likelihood of obtaining desired plant responses.
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Presented here is scientific information regarding wildland fire and nonnative invasive plant species, identifies the nonnative invasive species currently of greatest concern in major bioregions of the United States, and describes emerging fire-invasive issues in each bioregion and throughout the nation.
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This brief summarizes the current state of knowledge on the use of fire as a tool to manage invasive plants in wildlands. The authors of two publications discuss risks and challenges of conducting prescribed burns, types of systems and circumstances in which burning may be effective for the management of invasive plants, complexities of fire and plant community interactions, impacts of prescribed burning on the broader plant community and the soil, and comprehensive monitoring plans.
An article provides an overview of key factors, concepts and tools to understand the ecological resistance to biological invasion and resilience to fire of desert shrublands of North America.
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Three sites of "blackbrush vegetation type" were compared under unburned and burned (6–14 years postfire) sites for a variety of characteristics in the Mojave Desert.
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In a recent publication by USGS scientists, Drs. Matthew L. Brooks and David A. Pyke discussed these interrelationships, and concluded that the management of fire and invasive plants must be closely integrated for each to be managed effectively.
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At two sites in Mono County, California, two thinning treatments were compared: machine mastication versus cut/pile/burn by hand crews using chain saws.
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In a recent issue of the journal Ecological Applications, USGS scientist Dr. Matthew Brooks reports new information on temperature patterns during experimental fires, and the effects of these variable fire temperatures on annual plants in the Mojave Desert.
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USGS research botanist Matt Brooks and National Wildlife Refuges invasive species coordinator Michael Lusk have compiled a handbook titled Fire Management and Invasive Plants, with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Refuge System, USGS and the Joint Fire Science Program.
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Dendrochronology and other methods were used to reconstruct the fire history from 1500 through 2006 in the vicinity of Mt. Irish.
Fire and invasive species may cause changes in biological, chemical, and physical properties of desert soils. Although soil may recover from the impacts of fire during succession, these changes are permanent under persistent invasive species.
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Invasions of nonnative Tamarix spp. into desert riparian ecosystems in the southwestern U.S. and its replacement of native vegetation raises questions about potential shifts in fuel characteristics and fire behavior.
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Alien plants and fire have recently been recognized as significant land management problems in the Mojave and Colorado deserts, especially as they relate to management of the federally threatened desert tortoise.
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A model has been developed to predict wildfire risk in northeastern Mojave Desert. The model incorporates remote sensing data as well as field sampling data to generate the predicted fire risk.
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Presentations
Land managers, researchers, and conservationists gathered to share the latest in invasive plant biology and management at the California Invasive Plant Council (CAL IPC). 2017 Symposium presentations are now online.
This presentation was given at the Desert Symposium 2014.
Presenter: Nussear et al.
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Agenda for the Mojave Desert Fire Science and Management Workshop. Barstow, CA 2014.
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Presented at the Mojave Desert Fire Science and Management Workshop. Barstow, CA 2014.
This presentation explains the use and implication of utilizing modeling tools to predict invasive species distribution after a fire.
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Presented at the Mojave Desert Fire Science and Management Workshop. Barstow, CA 2014.
Conclusions from this presentation include statements about the prehistoric, historic, and current characteristics in the Mojave desert area. For example, high elevation and riparian vegetation types contain many species that evolved with fire, whereas lower elevation vegetation is characterized by species that evolved with very little fire.
Presenter: Matthew Brooks
The goals of this project were to provide a more detailed representation of the rainfall patterns in the Mojave and to compare the current precipitation regime and patterns with both historic patterns and predicted future patterns.
Presenter: Jerry Tagestad et al.
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Presented at the Mojave Desert Fire Science and Management Workshop. Barstow, CA 2014.
This presentation discusses the process of model development to map the ignition probability and fire severity.
Presenter: Emma Underwood et al.
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This presentation discusses findings from two large scale integrated projects. The overarching goals of these projects were to use models and create tools about resource issues such as non-native species, postfire vegetation, ignition likelihood and fire severity.
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This presentation was given at the Mojave Desert Fire Science and Management Workshop. Barstow, CA 2014.
Results from multiple studies on seeding in the Mojave Desert are presented in this presentation.
Other Resources
This bibliography organizes 80 scientific publications relating to different management and ecology topics in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. Release date: 2011
This brief discusses how to improve forage for the threatened desert tortoise through increasing abundance of native plant forage species.
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