ABSTRACT
The degradation of drylands continues almost unabated, despite the realization that dry areas need careful management to prevent overexploitation, through soil and water management and technologies that are appropriate to their more extensive systems, with due attention given to socioeconomic factors. The evolved relationships among plants and soil organisms in interaction with other components of soil systems, all operating within particular and difficult climatic and edaphic conditions, need to be considered as they create both constraints and opportunities for management. There are some available means for accelerating the regeneration of soil systems in degraded drylands. Long-term research in Mediterranean semi-arid areas of Spain has shown that CA (both reduced tillage and no tillage) increased soil organic matter content, microbial biomass carbon, and enzymatic activities in the upper layers of soil compared with traditional tillage practices.
