> which species of flora and fauna are most likely to be capable of recovering? Though some seeds can still be vital after more than 10 years (see Pink Sweetener's answer), animal's seeds won't generally last that long. Except maybe some tardigrade and bacteria, you will not have much more animal life around. And that brings a huge problem: you will have some plants sprouting, but then, with no insects around to do their duties as pollen vectors, only anemophile plants will be able to reproduce (i.e. conifers). You might also have local communities of plants reproducing though root propagation, but that is necessarily limited as form of propagation. To summarize, you will end up with a rather less diverse word, with many less species, where evolution has to start over again.