Community Insights for scoping a NASA Terrestrial Ecology field campaign
in drylands: ARID
Abstract
Dryland ecosystems cover 40% of our planet’s land surface, support the
lives of billions of people, and are responding dramatically to the
combined effects of climate and land use change. These expansive and
diverse systems also dominate core aspects of Earth’s climate, storing
and exchanging vast amounts of water, carbon, and energy with the
atmosphere. Despite the indispensable natural resources and ecosystem
services provided by drylands and their high vulnerability to change,
drylands are one of the most, if not the most, poorly understood
ecosystem types. Such lack of study has been in part due to incorrect
historical assumptions that drylands are unproductive “wastelands”.
This lack of understanding results in notably poor model representation
and forecasting capacity, hindering our representation and decision
making for these vulnerable ecosystems. The NASA Terrestrial Ecology
Program solicited proposals for a multi-year field campaign, of which
Adaptation and Response in Drylands (ARID) was one of two scoping
studies selected. With the goal of gathering input from the scientific
and data end-user communities, we provide an overview of our ARID
kick-off meeting with over 300 in-person and virtual participants held
in October 2023 at the University of Arizona. This meeting gathered
insights from public and private data end-users and scientists. We also
report on follow-up activities that have taken place since then,
including town halls, community surveys, and international engagements.