The paradoxical distribution of a shallow-rooted keystone species away from surface water, near the water-limited edge of its range in the Sonoran Desert: Seed-seedling conflicts

► Surface water hinders the establishment of the keystone Carnegiea in areas of concentrated runoff. ► Counter-intuitively, the shallow-rooted Carnegiea is distributed away from surface water in a water-limited site. ► Water redistributes seeds away from preferred microsites reflecting seed-seedling conflicts.