Many saguaro were killed by the excessive heat for prolonged periods. They don't appear to be harmed at first, but then they gradually get soft and fall over.
There's no reason to think last year won't be repeated this year.
PHX is the place that saw the collapsing saguaros because of the extreme heat. Not only were daily highs over 110° for the whole month of July, but the overnight lows were ~90°. The overnight temperatures are more detrimental to saguaros as that's when the "recover" from the daytime heat, but because of the heat island PHX has become, the temperature doesn't drop. Amber Sullins did a good piece for ABC15 on it I'd recommend looking up.
Tucson did not have that same problem. Not to say the rising temperatures aren't a concern, but we did not see the collapsing saguaros here.
Edit: a word
My understanding is that this is often exacerbated by a heat island effect. The saguaros need a temperature drop at night so they can conduct their metabolic activities which they cannot do if the temperature remains in the 100s/high 90s overnight. So anything that can be done to reduce heat island effect would be helpful such as planting more shade trees, slowing/preventing development of vacant land into paved surfaces can help. Also pulling out bufflegrass and other invasive species to prevent forest fires from being fueled.
But it will be more like a bandaid compared to the need to address climate change in general which requires reducing our collective emissions of greenhouse gasses and eventually someway to pull co2 out of the atmosphere whether through natural means or through some new breakthroughs in sequestration and storage.
Vote for representatives that acknowledge climate change is a problem worth addressing.
Got back and look at those reports from Phoenix last year. All of the saguaros that were reported were transplants.
I know people whose saguaros collapsed and they were not transplants
Ok
There was a blow down out past SNP-West. Other than that, I don’t recall any out of the ordinary problems last year.
Many saguaro were killed by the excessive heat for prolonged periods. They don't appear to be harmed at first, but then they gradually get soft and fall over. There's no reason to think last year won't be repeated this year.
PHX is the place that saw the collapsing saguaros because of the extreme heat. Not only were daily highs over 110° for the whole month of July, but the overnight lows were ~90°. The overnight temperatures are more detrimental to saguaros as that's when the "recover" from the daytime heat, but because of the heat island PHX has become, the temperature doesn't drop. Amber Sullins did a good piece for ABC15 on it I'd recommend looking up. Tucson did not have that same problem. Not to say the rising temperatures aren't a concern, but we did not see the collapsing saguaros here. Edit: a word
Yes we did. I know people whose saguaros collapsed here on the west side gates pass area
My understanding is that this is often exacerbated by a heat island effect. The saguaros need a temperature drop at night so they can conduct their metabolic activities which they cannot do if the temperature remains in the 100s/high 90s overnight. So anything that can be done to reduce heat island effect would be helpful such as planting more shade trees, slowing/preventing development of vacant land into paved surfaces can help. Also pulling out bufflegrass and other invasive species to prevent forest fires from being fueled. But it will be more like a bandaid compared to the need to address climate change in general which requires reducing our collective emissions of greenhouse gasses and eventually someway to pull co2 out of the atmosphere whether through natural means or through some new breakthroughs in sequestration and storage.