Arid and semi-arid regions cover over 40% of Earth’s land surface and support vulnerable yet productive agricultural systems. As climate change intensifies water scarcity, accelerates desertification, and increases global food demand, sustaining irrigated agriculture in drylands is a critical challenge. Addressing this requires an integrated understanding of the water-soil-carbon nexus. This session explores interactions among irrigation practices, soil health, carbon sequestration, and water and carbon fluxes in desert environments. We seek contributions addressing unique challenges of maintaining soil functionality under high evapotranspiration, salinity, and nutrient depletion, as well as studies on mineral weathering, pedogenic carbonate formation, and long-term inorganic carbon storage. We aim to foster interdisciplinary dialogue to develop scalable solutions for dryland agriculture. Potential topics include organic and inorganic carbon dynamics, precision irrigation and wastewater reuse, biogeochemical weathering, solute transport, and strategies to mitigate salinization while enhancing carbon storage for sustainable dryland management and global security.

• A - Atmospheric Sciences
• GC - Global Environmental Change
• GH - GeoHealth
• H - Hydrology