Advancing Knowledge for Proactive Drought Planning and Enhancing Adaptive Management for Drought on Rangelands: Introduction to a Special Issue

Abstract

• Drought adversely affects land managers, ranching enterprises, and pastoral systems.
• As an ecological driver, drought historically shaped vegetation composition, structure, diversity, and productivity of rangelands leading to varying levels of resilience in these ecosystems.
• Drought influences risk management in decision making by rangeland managers, resulting in a renewed emphasis on the importance of proactive drought planning and adaptive management for drought with monitoring-informed decision making.

Keywords: drought, rangelands, adaptivemanagement, proactive drought management, translating research, extension and outreach.