| Description |
Forests' responses to drought are influenced by a multitude of factors, including elevation, prior exposure to fire, prior exposure to drought, clade, and species. (Anderegg et al. in 2020) Severe drought or the heat generated by a fire event can lead to hydraulic failure. (McDowell et al. in 2008) Hydraulic failure refers to a situation where a plant loses its ability to sufficiently transport water from the roots to the leaves. This might indicate that trees burned in wildfires will not be better adapted to summer drought. However, it's important to consider that if a tree is given ample time to recover from a stressful event like a wildfire, it may indeed become better adapted to handle future drought conditions. (Anderegg et al, 2020). This research investigates the impact of wildfire exposure on a plant's capacity to acclimate to summer drought. This is important due to the escalating occurrence of wildfires alongside the concurrent rise in temperatures and drought events (Diffenbaugh et al., 2015). The primary objective is to determine whether plants that have survived wildfires are more or less drought resilient. To test this hypothesis, a native tree species, Juniper, in central Utah was selected to analyze the drought-related physiological characteristics. Comparing the drought-related physiological characteristics in a subset of 15 Juniper trees were selected in both a burned and unburned area in central Utah. This study suggests the Juniper species are more drought resistant after surviving and recovering from a fire event. The burned and unburned Juniper trees did not have a statistically significant difference between the pre and post drought measurements, health, and stress in each subset. The general health of the Juniper trees are generally not substantially impacted by fire. This research has the potential to offer valuable insights into the adaptability of various tree species to survive droughts and wildfires, aiding in our ability to predict future landscape ecology. |
