A new study finds that the Sonoran Desert’s iconic cactuses are suffering, not only from prolonged drought but also from spikes in longer and more intense heat waves.
Researchers looked at columnar cacti like the saguaros of the Sonoran Desert ranging from Phoenix to the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California.
The ecological group Next Generation Sonoran Desert Researchers — or NGen — found that heat waves like what we experienced in 2020-2021 caused acute stresses to these cactus, including scorching.
"You can think about almost like a really extreme sunburn," said NGen director Ben Wilder.
"So extreme that it renders that for the plants it renders their photosynthetic tissue unusable."
Researchers found that over 1,000 saguaros at the Desert Botanical Garden and cactus species in Baja California showed new stresses related to that 2020 and 2021 heat waves.
