摘要：A long-term drought has led to the mass mortality of shrubs in the semi-arid Israeli *** most impacted shrub species is the Noaea mucronata(Forssk.)*** *** a four-year study,we found that herbaceous vegetation growth was greater in the dead shrub patches than in the surrounding inter-patch biocrusted spaces,suggesting that the dead shrub patches encompass improved ***,unexpectedly,the soil moisture in the dead shrub patches was consistently lower than that of the inter-patch biocrusted *** the same time,soil quality in the dead shrub patches was higher than that in the inter-patch ***,it seems that the overall better soil conditions in the dead patches overcome the scarcity of soil-water,supporting increased herbaceous *** explaining the discrepancy between herbaceous vegetation and soil-water,we formulated a conceptual framework,which highlights the key factors that regulate soil-water dynamics in this dryland *** demonstrate that herbaceous vegetation is facilitated in the dead shrub patches by a legacy effect that takes place long after the shrubs have *** dead shrub patches encompass a unique form of ecosystem *** study highlights the complex and unpredicted impacts of prolonged droughts on dryland ecosystems.