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Recent drought has led to unprecedented levels of plant mortality across the Southwestern US. An unaddressed feature of this drought’s impact is how soil characteristics and soil hydrological behavior affect desert plant canopy die-back and mortality. Here. we present a multi-year study in the Mojave Desert assessing canopy die-back and whole-plant mortality of white bursage (Ambrosia dumosa) and creosotebush (Larrea tridentata) in soils varying in surface and sub-surface horizon development, and topographic (hillslope vs. channel) positions. Canopy die-back and mortality was more widespread A. dumosa than in L. tridentata, and dead plants tended to be smaller than surviving plants, especially in channel and hillslope locations. This suggests that juveniles were particularly vulnerable where plants depended heavily on augmentation of incident precipitation by runoff. Canopy die-back was greater in young, weakly developed soils that fostered extensive plant growth, while plants growing in older, well-developed soils showed markedly lower branch and plant mortality, especially in A. dumosa. We attributed these differences in plant response in part to variation in distributions of large rocks within soil profiles, which might affect soil hydrological heterogeneity and intensity of plant competition for water. Published by Elsevier Ltd.