Theme issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B on global change impacts in drylands

Dryland ecosystems are a key terrestrial biome, covering 41% of Earth’s land surface and supporting over 38% of the total global population. These ecosystems are highly vulnerable to global environmental change and desertification, two of the most important and pressing environmental and socio-economical issues currently faced by mankind. In spite of their extent and socio-ecological importance, the impacts of global environmental change on drylands remain poorly understood compared to other ecosystems. 

Fernando T. Maestre and Rob Salguero-Gómez have edited a Theme Issue for Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B entitled “Impacts of global environmental change on drylands: from ecosystem structure and functioning to poverty alleviation”. This Theme Issue will include a series of reviews and primary research articles on important topics that require particular attention to achieve a better understanding of the impacts of global change in drylands, and to fill in current gaps in our knowledge. These contributions will cover multiple disciplines (hydrology, biogeochemistry, ecosystem ecology, physiology, demography, community ecology and human ecology), organisms (from microbes to human populations), spatial scales and dryland regions. By including a wide variety of topics, scales and approaches, this Theme Issue provides an in-depth, mechanistic understanding of the projected effects of global change at different biological levels, with tangible applications to dryland resource management and human ecology.

This Issue is now at the production stage, and will be published later in 2012. Below are the articles/reviews that will be included:

Running Order	List of authors	Title
1	Fernando T. Maestre, Roberto Salguero-Gómez & José L. Quero	It’s getting hotter in here: determining and projecting the impacts of global environmental change on drylands
2	Andrew Thomas	Impact of grazing intensity on seasonal variations of soil organic carbon and soil CO2 efflux in two semi-arid grasslands in southern Botswana
3	Cristina Escolar,  Fernando T. Maestre, Isabel Martínez & Matthew A. Bowker	Warming reduces the growth and diversity of biological soil crusts in a semi-arid environment: implications for ecosystem structure and functioning
4	Roberto Salguero-Gómez, Wolfgang Siewert, Brenda B. Casper & Katja Tielbörger	A demographic approach to study effects of climate change in desert plants
5	Adela González-Megías & Rosa Menéndez	Climate change effects on above- and belowground interactions in a dryland ecosystem
6	Zhichun Lan & Yongfei Bai	Testing mechanisms of N-enrichment induced species loss in a semiarid Inner Mongolia grassland
7	Osvaldo E. Sala, Laureano Gherardi, Lara Reichmann, Esteban Jobbágy & Debra Peters	Legacies of precipitation fluctuations on primary production: Theory and data synthesis
8	Paolo D’Odorico & Abinash Bhattachan	Hydrologic variability in dryland regions: impacts on ecosystem dynamics and food security
9	Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald, Mónica Ribeiro Palacios, José Tulio Arredondo Moreno, Marco Braasch, Ruth Magnolia Martínez Peña, Javier García de Alba Verduzco, Karina Monzalvo Santos	Navigating social-ecological challenges and opportunities of land degradation and livelihood development in drylands: a case study in Mexico
10	Andrew J. Dougill, Lindsay C. Stringer, Julia Leventon, Mike Riddell, Henri Rueff, Dominick V. Spracklen & Edward Butt	Lessons from Community-based Payment for Ecosystem Service Projects: From Forests to Rangelands

We expect that the multi-disciplinary, multi-organismal approach followed in this Theme Issue will advance our understanding of the projected effects of global change in drylands, and will stimulate further research on this important topic.