For Star subscribers: Three years after Phoenix and Tucson experienced some of their hottest months on record, the saguaro, symbol of the Sonoran Desert, is still feeling the impacts, biologists say.
Tony Davis Three years after Phoenix and Tucson experienced some of their hottest months on record, the saguaro, symbol of the Sonoran Desert, is still feeling the impacts, biologists say, with elevated saguaro mortality rates observed in parts of Central and Southern Arizona.
People are also reading… In the Phoenix area, where official temperatures soared over 110 degrees 53 times in summer 2020, the more than 1,000 saguaros living on the Desert Botanical Garden’s 146 acres have been dying at “significantly” higher rates since then than before, said Kimberlie McCue, the gardens’ chief science officer. Those saguaros range from an inch to almost 30 feet tall.
Extreme heat, drought effectsTania Hernandez, a research scientist for the botanical garden, has been conducting a saguaro census in the community for the past two years. In it, she engages people in the urban area to record observations on conditions of saguaros, and to supply the gardens with photos of saguaros and notes on their condition.
During summer 2020, “there were saguaros collapsing across the Phoenix valley. We were getting calls just about every single day,” McCue told the Star Thursday. Ailing columnar cactiIn Southern Arizona, Wilder, director of a group of Sonoran Desert researchers, said the elevated saguaro mortality he’s noticed since summer 2020 has mainly been seen on the Desert Research Laboratory grounds on Tumamoc Hill and on Pima County-owned lands within Tucson Mountain Park. Wilder was director of the desert lab for six years until April 2022.
“It makes sites like the Desert Botanical Garden, Tumamoc Hill and Saguaro National Park so valuable — we’re seeing a real need for increased monitoring,” Wilder said. Higher nighttime temps a factorSaguaros have a well-deserved reputation of being able to survive and even thrive in extreme weather conditions, including heat and drought, though cold has been their best known nemesis, many scientists have said.
But when plants’ pores open as part of photosynthesis, “they’re not just taking in CO2, their water is going out,” McCue said. “When they open pores at night, cacti lose less water. Ostensibly, it’s cooler, normally.” “If that continues night after night after night, which is exactly what has been happening, it’s pushing these plants toward their physiological limit, their ability to function, like humans. When they experience heat stroke, and have an internal body temperature of 104-105-106, physiologically, their organs no longer can function,” McCue said.
These are plants that have been stressed due to heat and lack of water, she said. That also makes these plants more susceptible to bacterial and fungal infections and to insect pests. “If it was heat killing everything, it would be killing the small saguaros, but you don’t hear about small saguaros dying. It’s killing the ones that are already damaged and close to death. It’s only the old ones — the ones that have been transplanted or weak and don’t get enough water,” Peachey said.
“Here’s what going on,” Peachey told the Star Thursday. “Saguaros don’t normally die suddenly unless they’re wind thrown. They’re hit by lightning or they get the rot. The plant will fluff totally, suddenly, if it gets infected. When it gets hot metabolism, rates go up.
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