Arid Lands Newsletter

Winter 2005,
Issue No. 58

ISSN: 1092-5481

Soil management for drylands

Katherine Waser, Editor
Office of Arid Lands Studies (OALS)

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OALS is part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Arizona

TABLE OF CONTENTS

About the cover image

Editor's note:
To nurture life, we must nurture the soil

Saline and sodic soil management in irrigated crop production systems
by Jeffrey Silvertooth

Soil carbon and microbial biomass carbon after 40 years of grazing exclusion in semiarid sagebrush steppe of Wyoming
by Gyami Shrestha, Peter D. Stahl, Larry C. Munn, Elise G. Pendall, George F. Vance and Renduo Zhang

The potential for organic farming in the drylands of India
by Arun K. Sharma

"Our carbon is gone; we have to bring it back!": Soil fertility management and social learning in Senegal's drylands
by Petra Tschakert

Briefly noted:
Selected news of interest
Selected resources of interest

Download the paper summary version of ALN No. 58 (.pdf file)

CALL FOR PAPERS

The year 2006 has been declared the International Year of Deserts and Desertification (IYDD) by the United Nations. The next issue of the Arid Lands Newsletter (No. 59, Winter 2006) will focus on an exploration of the twin themes declared for the IYDD:

The unique opportunities deserts provide as ecosystems, and
the serious and global threat posed by desertification.

Specifically, articles for this upcoming issue should explore some aspect of the current "state of the art" regarding:

our understanding of dryland ecosystems (deserts, rangelands, dry woodlands) and their functioning
effective strategies for combating desertification and increasing resilience of local communities, both:
- in the short term (e.g. diversifying livelihood strategies, sharing knowledge and appropriate technologies), and
- in the long-term (e.g. developing policies and institutional mechanisms to promote sustainable land use)

As this theme covers quite a bit of territory, both broad overviews, and more narrowly focused papers detailing specific research or case studies, are welcome.

Proposals for papers, comments, suggestions for possible authors, suggestions for resources (web, paper, CD-ROM etc.) to be included, etc. in either of these issues, are welcome. Please send your suggestions to Katherine Waser, Editor, Arid Lands Newsletter.