2003 Prescribed Burn Effect on Chihuahuan Desert Grasses and Shrubs at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico: Grass Recovery Study (2003-2018)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife's plan to apply a prescribed burn to a
large portion of McKenzie Flats was deemed an opportunity to study
the effects of fire on the vegetation at the boundary between
shrubland and grassland. This study actually was undertaken on an
area that had prescribed fire applied to 8 of 16 (300 m x 300 m)
plots 10 years before in 1993. This previous study had also examined
the effects of fencing to exclude the indigenous prong-horn
antelope. In the 2003 study the prescribed fire was applied to the
northeastern half of the 16 plots while the southwestern plots were
intentionally protected. Sampling prior to the prescribed burn
included quantification of fuel load (ie. the standing biomass of
all grasses and forbs in the area to be burned). These measurements
were made using Daubenmire quadrat frames that are 5 cm x 20 cm and
delineate a 0.1 square meter area. Four samples were taken adjacent
to the six 3 m x 4 m quadrats in each of the eight plots that were
to be burned. Quadrat frames were laid down over the vegetation and
all vegetation rooted within the frame was clipped at ground level.
This material was bagged, oven-dried and weighed. Following the
prescribed burn, re-measurements were made every fall of from 2004
until 2012 when vegetation had reached its annual peak biomass. Data
were not collected from 2014-2017, but were collected again in 2018.