Drylands provide multiple essential services to human society, and dryland vegetation is one of the foundations of these services. There is a paradox, however, in the vegetation productivity–precipitation relationship in drylands. Although water is the most limiting resource in these systems, a strong relationship between precipitation and productivity does not always occur. Such a paradox affects our understanding of dryland vegetation dynamics and hinders our capacity to predict dryland vegetation responses under future climates. In this perspective, we examine the possible causes of the dryland precipitation–productivity paradox. We argue that the underlying reasons depend on the location and scale of the study. Sometimes multiple factors may interact, resulting in a less significant relationship between vegetation growth and water availability. This means that when we observe a poor correlation between vegetation growth and water availability, there are potentially missing sources of water input or a lack of consideration of other important processes. The paradox could also be related to the inaccurate measurement of vegetation productivity and water availability indicators. Incorporating these complexities into predictive models will help us better understand the complex relationship between water availability and dryland ecosystem processes and improve our ability to predict how these ecosystems will respond to the multiple facets of climate change.

Humans depend heavily on nature. Drylands are home to 2.5 billion people, but the extent to which nature contributes to people (NCP) in drylands has been little explored. We examined the global contribution of nature to people, aiming to compare drylands and non-drylands. We predicted a lower contribution in drylands than non-drylands, largely because of the sparser population densities (peoples’ needs) and more degraded status of natural resources (lower potential contribution). Consistent with expectation, nature’s contribution was about 30% lower in drylands, with significantly lower values for drylands in Asia, Oceania, Africa and South America, but no difference for Europe and North America. Differences were due mainly to lower contributions from material and regulating contributions, i.e., the regulation of air quality, climate, water quantity and flow, soil protection and the supply of woody material, and potentially, lower use by people in drylands. Predicted declines in rainfall and increasing temperature are likely to place increasing pressure on nature to contribute to human well-being in drylands. A better understanding of nature’s contributions to people would improve our ability to allocate limited resources and achieve sustainable development in drylands.

Productivity and function of arid and semiarid ecosystems (drylands) are optimised when critical resources such as water, organic matter and nutrients are assembled into discrete patches known as fertile patches or fertile islands. The strength of these islands is greater when the focal island plants are larger, but it is unclear whether this size effect holds true within similar-sized island species or across gradients in productivity. We examined the strength of the fertile island effect beneath three shrub species of similar structure but varying size across a gradient in productivity from ranges (low productivity), to footslopes (intermediate) and plains (high productivity). We predicted that fertility effects would be greater for larger plants and under lower productivity. There was no evidence of a productivity effect, but the fertility island effect increased with shrub size, irrespective of species. Furthermore, the fertile island effect was stronger for plant-related attributes (plants and litter) than functions associated with either soil fertility or soil stability. Our results reinforce the notion that plant size is an important determinant of the extent to which perennial plants enhance their understorey environment, irrespective of productivity or species. This has important implications for restoration programmes involving shrub plantings where the aim is to enhance the functionality of degraded dryland systems.

Contrary to the common perception of hyperarid drylands as barren and lifeless, these regions are home to some of the planet’s most unique biodiversity and support over 100 million people. Despite their ecological and human significance, hyperarid drylands remain among the least studied biomes in the world. In this article, we explore how improving our understanding of hyperarid ecosystems in the Middle East can yield valuable insights applicable to other hyperarid regions. We examine how ongoing greening initiatives in the Middle East offer a unique opportunity to deepen our knowledge of dryland ecology and advocate for the establishment of a comprehensive research program in the region. This program would focus on ecosystem functionality across spatial and temporal scales, setting the stage for a global monitoring network for hyperarid drylands. Such efforts would inform conservation strategies and climate change mitigation, while also shedding light on the resilience and adaptability of hyperarid ecosystems to environmental change. Ultimately, this monitoring would guide management practices to preserve biodiversity, enhance ecosystem services and promote sustainable development in hyperarid regions worldwide.