PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Desert plants — famous for tolerance of torrid landscapes — are dying at an alarming rate due to the twin threats of even hotter temperatures and less rain, according to new research published this week.
After analyzing more than three decades of satellite data, University of California, Irvine, scientists found a 37% decline in native vegetation across nearly 5,000 square miles of the Southern California Sonoran desert, from the Mexican border north across Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to Palm Springs, California.
Some scientists, including the study’s lead author, Stijn Hantson, had hoped that hardy desert plants would be able to survive warming temperatures and less rain, but the research definitively shows the opposite.
“They’re already so badly beaten by