Retired farmland recovery in the Borrego Springs Subbasin: Supporting data for: Disturbance legacies in arid environments shape recovery of former agricultural land

Increasingly, arid agricultural land is being permanently taken out of
production due to more frequent drought and higher temperatures, alongside
the overconsumption of groundwater. We investigated a chronosequence of
time-since-cultivation of former agricultural sites in the Colorado desert
to assess the degree and trajectory of recovery of vegetation community
and soil characteristics and to identify key environmental drivers that
shape this process. Recovery timescales varied widely for different
variables; soil salinity was estimated to recover to a non-saline level
within approximately 22 years, while native species richness could require
an estimated 130 years to approach reference conditions. The primary
drivers of recovery included a decline in soil salinity and a
corresponding decline in non-native species richness, and the influence of
episodic water flow, which enhanced landscape complexity and supported
perennial vegetation establishment. These findings emphasize the slow pace
of natural recovery in arid systems and the benefit of active restoration
to overcome persistent abiotic barriers on former agricultural land to
hasten recovery.