Ensuring a sustainable future for drylands
The vision of the Global Drylands Center is to become the world leader in discovery and education ensuring a sustainable future for drylands.
Our efforts to advance dryland stewardship impact the following:
ASU’s Global Drylands Center engages key actors of dryland stewardship to develop use-inspired research, training and solutions for arid ecosystems around the world.
Global Drylands Center research areas
Drylands provide a variety of ecosystem services to support nearly one third of the world’s human population.
Drylands are defined by scarcity of water and limited soil moisture (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment). Drylands differ in the amount of water they receive and range in type from hyper-arid to dry to subhumid.
As a result, there are different biomes represented within global drylands, such as deserts, grasslands, savannahs, Mediterranean ecosystems, and even forests.
Cambridge Prisms: Drylands
Drylands are critical to the health of the planet and as well as current and future populations.
Osvaldo Sala is helping put drylands in the spotlight. Cambridge University Prisms: Drylands, a multi-disciplinarity journal that’s all about understanding and protecting these vital ecosystems, seeks to underscore these dynamic and enchanting environments. As an editor-in-chief, Sala aims to synthesize a journal publishing high-impact transdisciplinary science and management of the drylands via specialized research, studies and special issues.
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Become a GDC associate
Being an associate helps support research, education and outreach efforts toward drylands sustainability. Fill out an interest form to get more information about the program and what it means to be involved.