Examples of Vegetation Changes
The Santa Rita Experimental Range Repeat Photography Archive Shows Desert Grassland Dynamics Across 121 Years and 115 Locations.
Download below the 2023 RISE Symposium poster presenting the Repeat Photography Archive collection and 121 years of vegetation changes on the SRER and see the complete series of photos taken from six different Photo Station locations that show the general patterns and the exceptions of those dynamics.
RISE 2023 POSTER:
The Santa Rita Experimental Range Repeat Photography Archive Shows Desert Grassland Dynamics
Across 121 Years and 115 Locations
EXAMPLES OF GENERAL PATTERNS AND EXCEPTIONS OF
CENTURY, DECADAL, AND ANNUAL VEGETATION DYNAMICS
CENTURY CHANGES
General Pattern: Mesquite increase in Grassland
Exception (landscape position): Mesquite and other woody species already common in Box Canyon wash
DECADAL CHANGES
General Pattern: Burroweed and cactus cycles, Lehmann lovegrass arrives
Exception (different soils): Burroweed and cholla cycles but no Lehmann lovegrass
Exception (different soils): Increase in Lehmann lovegrass but absence of shrubs and cacti
ANNUAL CHANGES
General Pattern: Consecutive years show grass increase and decrease following dry and wet summers
Exception (limited photos): No Exceptions to this trend were observed because all the photos taken in the summers from 1953 to 1956 were at higher elevations (> 1,000 m) and received similar amounts of precipitation