Dryland ecosystems face pressing problems, including woodland dieback/encroachment, desertification, dust generation, and fire. Many of these problems can only be tackled through a synergistic dialogue between specialists in soil science, plant ecology, and hydrology, especially in water-limited ecosystems. With the current interest in ecological observatory design and implementation, our main objective in this session is to improve synergies among these communities, in particular among those developing measurement methods and modeling capabilities to better understand emergent ecosystem behavior. There is a pressing need to develop research that links above- and belowground processes and that scales to the landscape. These scientific communities often fail to connect and interact meaningfully. This joint SSSA soil physics co-sponsored session will help to address this imbalance, and will help to advance the emerging field of ecohydrology. The goal of the session will be to bring together experts from soils, ecology and hydrology within a framework that seeks to highlight advances in modeling and measurement, which can be applied to pressing real-world issues requiring an interdisciplinary approach.