CURRENT ISSUE
What's so special about drylands?

The first goal of the International Year of Deserts and Drylands (2006) was to celebrate deserts' unique biological and cultural diversity, while raising awareness of the need to protect these unique resources. It is this theme that is addressed in the current issue of ALN. A core principle of all of the articles is that good scientific understanding of drylands is a crucial ingredient for developing strategies to cope with problems such as desertification, and that good scientific understanding in turn relies on having comprehensive, high-quality data and information. Without good data, it's exponentially more difficult to distinguish between natural variations and profound changes in ecosystem behavior--as well as to develop appropriate management strategies for either.