Ecological Effects of Prescribed Fire in a Chihuahuan Desert Grassland at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico

Fire resulting from natural ignition has become a more common event on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) since the exclusion of domesticated livestock. Efforts to return fire to the native landscape has resulted in the use of prescribed fire during periods that meet burn prescriptions. A prescribed fire was performed on the Sevilleta NWR in June 2003. Among the measured site and burn characteristics that were measure, this project sampled soils before and after the fire from 5 previously-sampled locations that were burned in June 2003 and from 5 newly established locations that served as controls. The controls were within an area that was sampled between 1989 and 1996 for similar properties measured in this study and had previously been tested to be similar to the locations burned in 2003. The soil properties that are repeatedly measured at the burn and control locations include: field water content; water-holding capacity; organic matter; field extractable nitrate and ammonium; and potentially mineralizable nitrogen.