Emerging technological and cultural shifts advancing drylands research and management

Abstract

Managing drylands for varied uses under escalating human demand is becoming increasingly complicated (MA 2005;Hochstrasser et al. 2012). Over the past century, drylands research has expanded both temporally and spatially in scope, allowing scientists and land managers to gain a better understanding of ecosystem dynamics at scales relevant to management (Bestelmeyer et al. 2011; Mueller et al. 2012). As a result, we now understand, for example, that the best practices for drylands management must include information about human factors such as legacy land uses affecting community structure and ecosystem services, as well as details regarding extreme climate conditions and resistance to management practices (Foster et al. 2003;Collins et al. 2014;Standish et al. 2014).The urgent need to stem further degradation and desertification in dryland ecosystems has been the underlying motivation for developing stronger linkages between research and management, but there remains a gap between the scales and directions of drylands research and the information needs of decision makers (Herrick and Sarukhan 2007;Sayre et al. 2012). Optimized management strategies require not only a mechanistic understanding of dryland ecosystem dynamics and their crossscale biophysical interactions (Peters et al. 2007), but also research and application at appropriate spatial and temporal scales (Peters et al. 2004;Karl and Maurer 2010). Still, there must be tighter connections between research, management, and knowledge; Yahdjian et al. (2015), for instance, note that the need to meet changing demands for ecosystem services intensifies the need to integrate relevant local knowledge and real-time landscape monitoring.Here we highlight several important technological and cultural advances that may transform drylands research and improve the links between research, management, and knowledge in dryland landscapes. We begin with a discussion about how new data collection, management, and analytical techniques that integrate large, disparate datasets will be pivotal in improving decision making for sustainable resource management. Second, we highlight several cultural advances that promote interactive environments for sharing, exploring, and using data. We envi- In a nutshell: SHIFTING PARADIGMS IN DRYLANDS Emerging technological and cultural shifts advancing drylands research and management Dawn• Those conducting research and making decisions to support the sustainable management of dryland ecosystem services face many challenges • The field is approaching technological and cultural "tipping points" that will expedite research and allow results to be shared openly and by different means • Ecologists are poised to simultaneously develop both arenasthe technological and the cultural -and merge them in ways that allow for rapid, dynamic cycling of information between research and management communities • Success will be achieved by collaborating more broadly across disciplines; adopting open practices regarding data collection, curation, and sharing;...

Phenocams Bridge the Gap between Field and Satellite Observations in an Arid Grassland Ecosystem

“…Therefore phenology monitoring programs can provide important information about ecosystem function and associated ecosystem services, which can contribute to improved land management practices [11]. We examined patterns in plant phenology in an arid grassland ecosystem using three observation platforms-ground, near surface digital cameras, and satellite-to assess the performance and relative utility of each for management applications.…”

“…Phenocams offer the capacity to bridge disparate data sets that originate at distinct levels within an observation hierarchy [11,54]. Others have noted the inherently scale-dependent nature of phenology and the challenges associated with capturing the appropriate phenomenon using metrics that range in measurement scale (ordinal field measures to interval surface reflectance), positional and temporal accuracy, etc.…”

“…While the value of phenological information is increasingly realized, there remains a lack of research-supported knowledge on specific approaches for incorporating phenological information in management decision making [10,11]. This may be for lack of understanding how phenological data can support natural resource management [12].…”

“…Methods and data range from satellite remote sensing to in situ field observations by volunteer citizen scientists and instrument-based observations of leaf chemistry for individual plants [21,24]. There is a pressing need to develop and characterize relationships between metrics at different levels of such an observation hierarchy to facilitate extrapolation between spatial and temporal scales, reveal detection limitations, optimize sampling efficacy relative to decision-making needs, and validate model outcomes [11,21,24].…”

Farmlands Feature Greater Woody Cover than Savannas in Semi-Arid West Africa

“…The recent access to large volumes of DigitalGlobe, Inc. commercial satellite images with a spatial resolution as low as 0.3 m in the panchromatic band marks a technical tipping point in dryland re-search 23 and allows us to produce a reliable, fine-scaled, wall-to-wall assessment of woody cover.…”