Adaptation and Response in Drylands: A Dryland ResearchAgenda and Campaign Strategy

Authors: FELDMAN, ANDREW - Goddard Space Flight Center; REED, SASHA - Us Geological Survey (USGS); WESSELS, KONRAD - George Mason University; OJIMA, DENNIS - Colorado State University; MOORE, DAVID - University Of Arizona; SMITH, WILLIAM - University Of Arizona; HANAN, NIALL - New Mexico State University; AMARAL, CIBELE - University Of Colorado; BABST, FLURIN - University Of Arizona; Biederman, Joel; LITVAK, MARCY - University Of New Mexico; MACBEAN, NATASHA - Western University; POULTER, BENJAMIN - Goddard Space Flight Center; Scott, Russell; BABST-KOSTECKA, ALICJA - University Of Arizona; GREEN, JULIA - University Of Arizona; KOKALY, RAYMOND - Us Geological Survey (USGS); PAVLICK, RYAN - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA); SWAP, ROBERT - Goddard Space Flight Center; SERBIN, SHAWN - Goddard Space Flight Center; TUCKER, COMPTON - Goddard Space Flight Center; WANG, LIXIN - Indiana University; WATTS, JENNIFER - Woodwell Climate Research Center; FLORES, ALEJANDRO - Boise State University; RATTLING LEAF, JAMES - University Of Colorado; CRUZ, SATIVA - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA); TULLEY, NIKKI - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA); WASHINGTON ALLEN, ROBERT - University Of Nevada; PRENTICE, KAREN - Bureau Of Land Management; KACHERGIS, EMILY - Bureau Of Land Management; REYES, JULIAN - Bureau Of Land Management; RYAN, JASMINE - Us Geological Survey (USGS); SANCLEMENTS, MICHAEL - National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON); LOESCHER, HENRY - National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON); LEIDNER, ALLISON - US Department Of The Interior; SWETNAM, TYSON - Colorado State University

Submitted to: Global Change Biology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/21/2026
Publication Date: 7/15/2026
Citation: Feldman, A.F., Reed, S.C., Wessels, K., Ojima, D., Moore, D.J., Smith, W.K., Hanan, N.P., Amaral, C., Babst, F., Biederman, J.A., Litvak, M., MacBean, N., Poulter, B., Scott, R.L., Babst-Kostecka, A., Green, J.K., Kokaly, R.F., Pavlick, R., Swap, R., Serbin, S.P., Tucker, C.J., Wang, L., Watts, J., Flores, A., Rattling Leaf, J., Cruz, S., Tulley, N., Washington Allen, R.A., Prentice, K., Kachergis, E., Reyes, J., Ryan, J., SanClements, M., Loescher, H.W., Leidner, A., Swetnam, T. 2026. Adaptation and Response in Drylands: A Dryland ResearchAgenda and Campaign Strategy. Global Change Biology. 32(7). Article e70975. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70975Digital Object Identifier (DOI).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70975Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Interpretive Summary: Dryland ecosystems cover 41% of Earth’s land surfaces, account for 44% of cultivated lands and 60% of food sources, and make large contributions to the global water and carbon cycles. However, these ecosystems are experiencing unprecedented extremes including heatwaves, floods, and droughts as well as hotter temperatures and often lower water resource availability on average. Here, USDA researchers in Tucson, AZ in collaboration with university and other US agency researchers detail the Adaptation and Response in Drylands (ARID) science research agenda and implementation plan that were developed based on an extensive community engagement effort in over 160 events with over a thousand scientists, land managers, and Tribal communities between 2023 and 2024. The selected science themes cover drought and climate variability, ecosystem structure, function, and biodiversity, carbon cycle inter annual variability and trends, and social ecological systems (land management and adaptation). Research strategies for remote sensing, modeling, and field based activities to capture high temporal and high spatial resolution processes are addressed. Finally, the implementation strategy includes focus area selections in a core intensive western U.S. domain and distributed international domains. This strategy includes overarching guiding principles of using multi-temporal airborne acquisitions and super sites as well as enhancing land management in co-development with end-user partners. While originally developed for NASA, this ARID report creates a blueprint for any future dryland field campaign, at any scale, that can be implemented widely for foundational and applied science objectives.

Technical Abstract: Dryland ecosystems cover 41% of Earth’s land surfaces, account for 44% of cultivated lands and 60% of food sources, and make large contributions to the global water and carbon cycles. However, these ecosystems are experiencing unprecedented extremes including heatwaves, floods, and droughts as well as hotter temperatures and often lower water resource availability on average. These ecosystems are some of the most challenging to monitor given their high temporal variability with rapid response to their environment as well as vast spatial variability with intermixing of different plant species and life forms amongst bare soil coverage. The Adaptation and Response in Drylands (ARID) campaign was selected by NASA as a scoping study to develop a research agenda for a dryland field campaign. Here, we detail our ARID science research agenda and our implementation plan that were developed based on an extensive community engagement effort in over 160 events with over a thousand scientists, land managers, and Tribal communities between 2023 and 2024. The selected science themes cover drought and climate variability, ecosystem structure, function, and biodiversity, carbon cycle inter annual variability and trends, and social ecological systems (land management and adaptation). We then detail our remote sensing, modeling, and field based strategies to capture high temporal and high spatial resolution processes. Finally, our implementation strategy is presented which includes focus area selections in a core intensive western U.S. domain and distributed international domains. This strategy includes our overarching guiding principles of using multi-temporal airborne acquisitions and super sites as well as enhancing land management in co-development with end-user partners. While originally developed for NASA, our ARID report creates a blueprint for any future dryland field campaign, at any scale, that can be implemented widely for foundational and applied science objectives.