Improving models of community change is a fundamental goal in ecology and has renewed importance during global change and increasing human disturbance of the biosphere. Using the Mojave Desert (southwestern United States) as a model system, invaded by nonnative plants and subject to wildfire disturbances, we examined models of resilience, alternative stable states, and convergent‐divergent trajectories for 36 yr of plant community change after 31 wildfires in communities dominated by the native shrubs Larrea tridentata or Coleogyne ramosissima. Perennial species richness on average was fully resilient within 23 yr after disturbance in both community types. Perennial cover was fully resilient within 25 yr in the Larrea community, but recovery was projected to require 52 yr in the Coleogyne community. Species composition shifts were persistent, and in the Coleogyne community, the projected compositional recovery time of 550 yr and increasing resembled a deflected trajectory toward potential alternative states. Disturbed sites contained a perennial species composition of predominately short‐statured forbs, subshrubs, and grasses, contrasting with the larger‐statured shrub and tree structure of undisturbed sites. Auxiliary data sets characterizing species recruitment, annual plants including nonnative grasses, biocrust communities, and soils showed persistent differences between disturbed and undisturbed sites consistent with positive feedbacks potentially contributing to alternative stable states. Resprouting produced limited resilience for the large shrubs L. tridentata and Yucca spp. important to population persistence but did not forestall long‐term reduced abundance of the species. The nonnative annual grass Bromus rubens increased on disturbed sites over time, suggesting persistently abundant nonnative plant fuels and reburn potential. Biocrust cover on disturbed sites was half and species richness a third of amounts on undisturbed sites. Soil nitrogen was 30% greater on disturbed sites and no significant trend was evident for it to decline on even the oldest burns. Disturbed desert plant communities simultaneously supported all three models of resilience, alternative stable states, and convergent‐divergent trajectories among community measures (e.g., species richness, composition), timeframes since disturbance, and spatial resolutions. Accommodating expression within ecosystems of multiple models, including those opposing each other, may help broaden theoretical models of ecosystem change.

Blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima) has rarely been observed naturally regenerating following fire. It was historically considered a paleoendemic species because it did not recolonize following disturbance. In 2008, the Fossil and Jacob fires burned 241 ha of blackbrush in Basin and Range National Monument, Lincoln County, Nevada, USA in the Mojave-Great Basin Desert transition zone. These sites are at the northern boundary of the species range near the top of its current elevational band. Eighteen 5 x 30 m plots within the burned areas were monitored in 2009–2011 and 2018–2022 to assess plant foliar cover and woody plant density. Another 18 plots in adjacent unburned areas were monitored in 2022. Blackbrush seedlings emerged within the first year following fire at higher densities in the burned areas compared to adjacent unburned areas. After an initial flush of seedlings in 2009, there was high seedling mortality in 2010. By 2011, density in the burned areas was 0.35 blackbrush per m2 (46% of density in adjacent unburned areas), but individuals were small and had less than 1% total cover. Upon returning in 2018, the blackbrush that established early following fire had grown, and showed a significant increase in cover to 5.83–10.80%. Cover continued to increase through 2020 peaking at a mean of 12.9% before slighting declining with drought in 2021–2022. The area now has nearly two-thirds the blackbrush density and one-third the cover that adjacent unburned areas have. Blackbrush redominated these burned areas in under 10 years following fire and continues to increase.

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