ARID Scoping Study Final Report on Dryland Adaptation

A 2023 NASA-funded scoping study outlines a prioritized research agenda and initial implementation plan for a new Terrestrial Ecology field campaign focused on drylands. The report details four science themes: Climate Variability and Drought, Ecosystem Structure and Biodiversity, Carbon Cycle Trends, and Social-Ecological Systems. It was co-created through over 160 meetings with scientists, decision-makers, Tribal Nations, and federal entities across six continents.

Use Cases

• Developing field campaign designs for monitoring dryland carbon cycle interannual variability and long-term trends.
• Informing social-ecological systems research by integrating perspectives from Tribal Nations and federal entities.
• Planning the deployment of NASA airborne instruments to augment satellite data for evaluating dryland ecosystem structure and function.
• Supporting international collaboration on dryland forecasting by leveraging the study's network of sites in Africa, Australia, Mexico, and South America.

Strengths

• The science plan was co-created through an outreach effort involving over 160 meetings and events with hundreds of contributors.
• The study defines a clear, actionable framework organized around four specific science themes.
• The plan has a global scope, leveraging an international network of collaborators across multiple continents.

Limitations

• The dataset is a report/document, not a quantitative data table, so specific column names and row counts are unavailable.
• Sources conflict on the 'last updated' date, with one platform showing 2026-03-12 and another showing a placeholder date of 2032-12-31.
• The core data format is a final report, limiting direct analysis of raw environmental measurements.

Provenance

Source

NASA Terrestrial Ecology program, ORNL_CLOUD.

Collection Method

Scoping study involving extensive stakeholder outreach and synthesis.

Time Range

2023 (study funding year)

Freshness

2026-03-12

Geography

Primary focus on the western U.S., with international sites in Africa, Australia, Mexico, and South America.