Scott R. Abella

This study quantitatively reviewed vegetation reestablishment following a variety of disturbances in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of southwestern North America. A total of 47 studies met inclusion criteria for the review.

A commonality is that ecological restoration is challenging in deserts, because deserts represent extremes of Earth’s climates and precipitation is unreliable. It is not uncommon for some deserts to receive little or no rainfall for an entire year, or even multiple years.

Estimates of soil seed banks are important to many ecological investigations and plant conservation, yet seed banks are among the most difficult plant community attributes to accurately quantify.