Developing methods of assisted natural regeneration for restoring foundational desert plants

Assisted natural regeneration (ANR) is a restoration and management technique for enhancing the natural recruitment of desired species. To test ANR strategies in an arid environment, we applied irrigation and shelters to natural seedlings of the ecologically foundational shrub Larrea tridentata to enhance revegetation of a disturbed site in the Mojave Desert, USA. Irrigation did not improve seedling survival and growth. Shelters reduced 2-year...