LB 30-258 - Does fire disturbance impact soil microbiomes and plant communities in the southwest USA?

Reduced precipitation and higher temperatures due to climate change increases the probability of more frequent, high intensity, and high severity wildfires across the Southwest USA. Thinning and prescribed burns are commonly used as forest management practices to mitigate catastrophic wildfires in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests. However, prescribed burns can degrade forest understories including the grasses and their associated arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi (AMF). This research is investigating the impact of time-since prescribed fire on grass and AMF species richness and abundance in a ponderosa pine forest in northeastern New Mexico. The study area is state owned land near Black Lake, NM where the land is utilized by neighboring ranchers for cattle grazing. This area has also been managed with restoration tools such as thinning and prescribed fires, but little to no research has been conducted to study the impacts. The objectives of this project are to investigate the impact of time-since fire on 1) grass species richness and biomass, 2) AMF abundance, and 3) grass and AMF interactions. Although grass species richness and abundance did not differ with time-since fire, grass communities did differ among the treatment areas. C3 plants were the most dominant within the most recent burn area, which was the treatment area that also had the most AMF abundance. While this compliments other research that has been conducted, there is still further research to be done to better understand the grass and AMF interactions in relation to prescribed fires. This research contributes to our understanding of the temporal dynamics and resilience of forested grasslands after the use of prescribed fires as a restoration management tool under the current changing climate conditions.