In 2020 the Dome Fire swept the Mojave Desert and killed an estimated one million Eastern Joshua trees. The fire burned large areas and left many trees dead.
Researchers from universities sampled burned and unburned soils from just over two weeks after the fire through three years. They found no clear drop in fungal biomass or in the number of soil microbes. In some places fungal and bacterial diversity rose a little after the fire.
Because soil fungi stayed, restoration may not need costly soil replacements. Still, Joshua trees grow slowly and seedlings are often eaten, so recovery is hard.
Difficult words
- sweep — move quickly across a large areaswept
- estimate — a careful guess about a numberestimated
- biomass — total mass of living things in soil
- microbe — very small living organism such as bacteriamicrobes
- restoration — process of returning land to earlier condition
- seedling — a young plant grown from a seedseedlings
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- Have you seen land burned by a fire? What did you notice about the plants?
- What can people do to help young trees after a fire?
- Do you think soil organisms are important for plant recovery? Why or why not?
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