Plant and soil ecology, Research summaries

What’s hiding beneath our feet? A new way to sample life in dryland soils

By Walter R Jubber, Andrea Fuller, Maria Paniw Drylands cover over 40% of Earth’s land surface. When we think about biodiversity in drylands, we often picture aboveground shrubs, flowers sprouting after rain, grazing animals, and maybe insects scurrying across the surface. But a key adaptation to extreme temperatures and aridity, especially for invertebrates, is spending most of their life below ground. Soil invertebrates hidden below … Continue reading What’s hiding beneath our feet? A new way to sample life in dryland soils

AER | ESEMay 28, 2026May 27, 2026Leave a comment

Research summaries, Video

Strategies for global rangeland stewardship: the equilibrium-non-equilibrium debate

The rangeland equilibrium-non-equilibrium debate produced several important advances in our understanding of rangeland systems. But, in their recent Review, Briske et al. ask if, collectively, these advances are still insufficient to inform the stewardship strategies necessary to sustain global rangelands? Here they provide a summary of their work. The rangeland equilibrium-non-equilibrium debate of the late 20th Century questioned the appropriate ecological model governing the function … Continue reading Strategies for global rangeland stewardship: the equilibrium-non-equilibrium debate