Editorial: Environmental change in drylands: Past, present, future–volume II

Dryland environments—defined as landscapes spanning hyper-arid to sub-humid climates—cover 40% of the terrestrial surface, host 40% of the world’s human population, and are characterized by considerable seasonal and inter-annual variations in precipitation. Climatic and environmental variability in drylands has been a key characteristic over a range of timescales from the Quaternary into the Anthropocene. The climatic oscillations of the Quaternary have influenced dryland landscapes, ecology, and hominin populations. Drivers include glacial to interglacial-paced impacts on temperature and hydroclimate, precessional-insolation forcing of global monsoon systems, and teleconnection with millennial-scale extreme climate events at the higher latitudes. More recently, human land use and anthropogenic climate change are causing desertification on dryland margins. The interpretation of aeolian, fluvial, lacustrine, and other dryland archives must consider complex and non-linear arid landscape dynamics and feedbacks in response to external forces. Dryland responses to climatic variation are recorded in landform morphology (geoproxies) and in sedimentary records.

This Research Topic showcases new innovative approaches to interpreting archives of environmental change in drylands. The development of new proxies, new interpretation of multi-proxies, and integration of data with numerical models is essential for improving the information which can be derived from geoproxies and for better understanding the history of environmental change in drylands. This Research Topic comprises eight papers, dealing with a range of geoproxy types, approaches, and geographical areas (Figure 1). Both hemispheres and four continents (Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australasia) are covered.