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Background  Current and future changes in rainfall amount and frequency may particularly impact annual plants in desert ecosystems. The winter annual  Echinops gmelinii  Turcz. is widely distributed in the desert habitats of northern China and is a dominant pioneer annual plant following sand stabilization in the Tengger Desert. This species plays a vital role in dune stabilization during spring and early summer, when wind erosion is the most severe and frequent. However, seedling emergence and regeneration in sandy soil are mainly determined by rainfall patterns. Therefore, understanding the life history response of this species to rainfall variation is necessary for understanding the change of population dynamics under the future climate change.    Methods  A field simulation rainfall pot experiment using rainout shelter was conducted that included five amounts and five frequencies of rainfall based on historical and predicted values to monitor the life history responses of  E. gmelinii  in a near-natural habitat.    Results  We found that rainfall amount and frequency significantly affected seedling survival, growth and reproduction. The plant height, biomass, capitula number, seed number, seed mass and reproductive effort, but not the root/shoot ratio, significantly increased with increasing rainfall. Further, these traits exhibited the greatest response to low-frequency and larger rainfall events, especially the optimal rainfall frequency of 10-day intervals. Offspring seed germination showed increasing trends with decreasing rainfall, suggesting that the maternal effects may have occurred.    Conclusions  Our study shows that the plasticity in growth and reproduction of  E. gmelinii  in response to rainfall variations may help it to gain dominance in the harsh and unpredictable desert environment. Furthermore, population development of this winter annual species should be promoted under the likely future scenarios of large rainfall events and increasing cool-season precipitation in temperate desert.

Life history response of Echinops gmelinii Turcz. to variation in the rainfall pattern in a temperate desert