James A. Young C. Richard Tracy Todd C. Esque 2010 A Mojave Desert shrub community was experimentally burned to understand changes in seed bank of desert annual plant species in response to wildfire. Seed mortality ranged from 55 to 80%, and fire caused significant losses of native and alien annual seeds. <i>Schismus arabicus</i>, <i>Schismus barbatus</i>, <i>Bromus madritensis</i>, <i>Bromus tectorum</i>, <i>Erodium cicutarium</i> and <i>Plantago</i> spp. made up >95% of the seed bank. <i>Bromus</i> spp. and <i>Plantago</i> spp. had proportionately greater mortality of seeds than did <i>Schismus</i> spp. and <i>E. cicutarium</i>. <i>Schismus</i> spp. can be lodged into soil cracks thus avoiding lethal temperatures. <i>E. cicutarium</i> has a self-drilling mechanism that places the seeds at greater depth in the soil. Greater seed mortality occurred beneath shrub canopies than interspaces for most species (<i>Plantago</i>, spp., <i>Bromus</i> spp., and <i>E. cicutarium</i>), but microsite had little effect on <i>Schismus</i> spp. Fire reduced the perennial <i>Ambrosia dumosa</i> densities under canopies. Fire reduced the mean number of species found in samples by about one species per plot and no species was extirpated on experimental plots. The relative abundances of common species did not change dramatically as a result of fire or microsite, however; seed densities varied by treatment and affected interpretations of species compositions. application/pdf en Elsevier Short-term effects of experimental fires on a Mojave Desert seed bank article