Desert Ecosystem

Wow, 3,000 today. Time flies in the desert.


The large, multi-armed saguaros  are the senior citizens of the cactus world. Saguaros live to be about 125 years of age. They weigh 6 tons or more and are as tall as 50 feet. Biologists believe that some plants may live over 200 years.

Saguaros are killed by being struck by lightning, blown over in a wind storm, and by people. But the largest cause of death is freezing and the effects of freezing may take several years to become evident. Freezing weakens the cactus, making it more susceptible to infection. 

A closer look at the fauna in a rotting saguaro exposes an ecosystem with grazers on fungi, such as feather winged beetles, mites and arthopods. A small chunk of rotting saguaro (about 1 cubic foot) was examined at the University of Arizona; it yielded 413 individual bugs.