In drylands the soil water availability is a key factor ruling the architecture of the ecosystem. The soil water reflects the exchanges of water among soil, vegetation, and atmosphere. Here, a dryland ecosystem is investigated through the analysis of the local interactions between soil water and vegetation forced by rainfall having seasonal and stochastic occurrence. The evolution of dryland ec...

Variability in satellite measurements of terrestrial greenness in drylands is widely observed in land surface processes and global change studies. Yet the underlying causes differ and are not fully understood. Here, we used the GeogDetector model, a new spatial statistical approach, to examine the individual and combined influences of physiographic factors on dryland vegetation greenness change...

and DSSAT could be used to predict success or failure of soybean in dryland crop rotations. But for a crop The Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM) and CROPmodel to be a valuable aid in predicting the effects, and GRO-Soybean simulate soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] growth, success or failure, of intensifying and diversifying rotadevelopment, and yield. The models require calibration for soyb...

Drylands cover about 40 % of the terrestrial land surface and account for approximately 40 % of global net primary productivity. Water is fundamental to the biophysical processes that sustain ecosystem function and food production, particularly in drylands where a tight coupling exists between ecosystem productivity, surface energy balance, biogeochemical cycles, and water resource availability...

Seed dispersal alters gene flow, reproduction, migration and ultimately spatial organization of dryland ecosystems. Because many seeds in drylands lack adaptations for long-distance dispersal, seed transport by secondary processes such as tumbling in the wind or mobilization in overland flow plays a dominant role in determining where seeds ultimately germinate. Here, recent developments in mode...

Plant interactions greatly affect plant community structure. Dryland ecosystems are characterized by low amounts of unpredictable precipitation as well as by often having biological soil crusts (BSCs) on the soil surface. In dryland plant communities, plants interact mostly as they compete for water resources, and the direction and intensity of plant interaction varies as a function of the temp...