Theory 34/Grassland & Savanna/Drought recovery
Recovery Needs Reserves
The claim
Grassland recovery after drought is set by the ratio of seed bank to surviving tillers, so a system with few tillers and no seed bank recovers slowly.
01Mechanism
Recovery starts from surviving meristems and from germination; the ratio determines which pathway dominates and how fast.
02Prediction
Recovery rate should track the ratio.
03Refutation
Recovery tracking rainfall would remove the reserves.