Environmental Change and Response in East African Lakes

Environmental Change and Response in East African Lakes PDF

Author: J.T. Lehman

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-06-29

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 9401714371

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The idea for this book was born at the June 1996 meeting of the IDEAL Steering Committee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We had just completed a successful and stimulating special symposium during the annual meeting of the American Society for Limnology and Oceanography, and enthusiasm was running high for the production of a volume that could assemble in one place the scientific findings that were starting to emerge from East Africa. IDEAL, an International Decade for the East African Lakes, had ended one round of field investigations, many of which had been centered on Lake Victoria. As the climatologists, geologists, paleolimnologists, and biologists displayed their results and debated interpretations, it appeared that some paradigms were shifting, and that new explanations of climate history and modem processes were taking shape. The Steering Committee endorsed the production of a volume that would draw together the different research results that were emerging and which would be representative of the scope of science issues that exist within IDEAL. This book follows in the spirit of The Limnology, Climatology, and Paleoclimatology of the East African Lakes, published in 1996, but has a somewhat different purpose. The previous publication also included original science results, but it was conceived to review the state of knowledge, identify critical problems, and point to new paths of inquiry. It accompanied the development of our first Science and Implementation Plan for the East African Lakes.

The East African Great Lakes: Limnology, Palaeolimnology and Biodiversity

The East African Great Lakes: Limnology, Palaeolimnology and Biodiversity PDF

Author: Eric O. Odada

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2006-03-09

Total Pages: 578

ISBN-13: 0306482010

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The Second International Symposium on the East African Lakes was held from 10-15 January 2000 at Club Makokola on the southern shore of Lake Malawi. The symposium was organized by the International Decade for the East African Lakes (IDEAL), a research consortium of African, European and North American scientists interested in promoting the investigations of African Great Lakes as archives of environmental and climatic dynamics. Over one hundred African, European and North American scientists with special expertise in the tropical lakes participated in the symposium which featured compelling presentations on the limnology, climatology, palaeoclimatology and biodiversity of the East African Lakes. It is their papers that comprise this book. The large lakes of East Africa are important natural resources that are heavily utilized by their bordering countries for transportation, water supply, fisheries, waste disposal, recreation and tourism. The lakes are unique in many ways: they are sensitive to climatic change and their circulation dynamics, water-column chemistry and biological complexity differ significantly from large lakes at higher latitudes; they have long, continuous, high resolution records of past climatic change; and they have rich and diverse populations of endemic organisms. These unique properties and the significance of the palaeolimnological records demand and attract research interest from around the world.

Africa's Lakes

Africa's Lakes PDF

Author:

Publisher: UNEP/Earthprint

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 9789280726947

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Prepared as part of UNEP's contribution to the 11th World Lakes Conference (held in Nairobi, Kenya in November 2005), this publication examines the environmental changes taking place to Africa's lakes by analysing ground photographs, current and historical satellite images and scientific evidence. Changes highlighted include the rapid shrinking of Lake Songor in Ghana, partly as a result of intensive salt production, and the extraordinary changes in the Zambezi river system as a result of the building of the Cabora Basa dam site. Other impacts, some natural and some human-made and which can only be truly appreciated from space, include the extensive deforestation around Lake Nakuru in Kenya, and the falling water levels of Lake Victoria which is now about a metre lower than it was in the early 1990s. The analysis recognises the importance of Africa's lakes as a source of livelihoods for many local communities, their contribution to the socio-economic development of the continent and the need for the sustainable management of these resources in order to help overcome poverty and meet internationally agreed development goals by 2015.

Limnology, Climatology and Paleoclimatology of the East African Lakes

Limnology, Climatology and Paleoclimatology of the East African Lakes PDF

Author: Thomas C Johnson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-08-13

Total Pages: 679

ISBN-13: 1351435329

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The large lakes of the East African Rift Valley are among the oldest on Earth, and are vital resources for the people of their basins. They are unique among the large lakes of the world in terms of their sensitivity to climatic change, rich and diverse populations of endemic species, circulation dynamics and water-column chemistry, and long, continuous records of past climatic change. A comprehensive study of the large African lakes is long overdue. The scientific justification for such an effort is noted in the previous paragraph and is illustrated in great detail in this volume. Societal need for the sustainable utilization of these lakes offers an even more compelling reason for examination of biological food webs, water quality, and past climate variability in East Africa. The lakes provide the most important source of protein for the people of the African Rift Valley, and fish populations are shifting dramatically in response to fishing pressure, introduction of exotic species, land use impact on water quality, and perhaps climatic change. Current estimates of primary productivity, the underpinning of the food resource, are extremely crude and based on only a few spot measurements.

Influence of Climate Change and Human-induced Environmental Degradation on Lake Victoria

Influence of Climate Change and Human-induced Environmental Degradation on Lake Victoria PDF

Author: Julius B. Lejju

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 118

ISBN-13: 9994455672

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Lake Victoria basin, an international water body that offers the riparian communities a large number of important benefits, has in the last four decades experienced drastic environmental changes, with a significant drop in its water level in the more recent years. The changes in water level have significantly affected the energy supply in the region and threatened the lives of the riparian population engaged, directly and indirectly, in subsistence and commercial fishing, and the agricultural and industrial sectors. The reduction in lake levels has attracted conflicting speculation. Environmentalists attribute it to reduced rainfall experienced in the East African region, while hydrologists blame it on environmental degradation and excessive water release through the operations of the Kiira-Nalubale hydroelectric power dams at Jinja. This research provides evidence of long-term environment changes in Lake Victoria and a contribution to the understanding of the past environmental conditions in the lake basin. It provides the history of human environment interactions, including the possible cause for the dynamics of the lake levels, giving possible options that can help to remedy and/or mitigate the environmental degradation in the region.

East African Ecosystems and Their Conservation

East African Ecosystems and Their Conservation PDF

Author: T. R. McClanahan

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 0195108175

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East Africa is one of the most diverse and interesting tropical area on the planet. It is home not only to the last great megafaunal assemblage, but also to human populations with the highest growth rates. This book draws on the expertise of leading ecologists, each intimately familiar with a particular set of East African ecosystems, to provide the first in-depth and integrated account of the ecology, management, threats, and conservation of these diverse ecosystems. Summarizing the tremendous wealth of scientific research that has come out of East Africa in the last few decades, each chapter analyzes a given ecosystem type, taking the reader through the basics of its ecology, its historical use (and misuse) by humans, and its prospects for conservation. Throughout the book, linkages and similarities among ecosystems are emphasized, the historical and contemporary role of humans in shaping these ecosystems is considered, fundamental principles of ecology are considered, and interesting case studies are highlighted. Students and researchers in ecology, conservation biology, and environmental sciences will find this book useful in their work.

The Nile

The Nile PDF

Author: Henri J. Dumont

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2009-05-06

Total Pages: 819

ISBN-13: 1402097263

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What have we learnt about the Nile since the mid-1970s, the moment when Julian Rzóska decided that the time had come to publish a comprehensive volume about the biology, and the geological and cultural history of that great river? And what changes have meanwhile occurred in the basin? The human popu- tion has more than doubled, especially in Egypt, but also in East Africa. Locally, industrial development has taken place, and the Aswan High Dam was clearly not the last major infrastructure work that was carried out. More dams have been built, and some water diversions, like the Toshka lakes, have created new expanses of water in the middle of the Sahara desert. What are the effects of all this on the ec- ogy and economy of the Basin? That is what the present book sets out to explore, 33 years after the publi- tion of “The Nile: Biology of an Ancient River”. Thirty-seven authors have taken up the challenge, and have written the “new” book. They come from 13 different countries, and 15 among them represent the largest Nilotic states (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya). Julian Rzóska died in 1984, and most of the - authors of his book have now either disappeared or retired from research. Only Jack Talling and Samir Ghabbour were still available to participate again.

Past Climate Variability through Europe and Africa

Past Climate Variability through Europe and Africa PDF

Author: Richard W. Battarbee

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2007-11-06

Total Pages: 653

ISBN-13: 1402021216

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This book focuses on two complementary time-scales, the Holocene (approximately the last 11,500 years) and the last glacial-interglacial cycle (approximately the last 130,000 years) to synthesize evidence of climate variability at the regional and continental scale across Europe and Africa. This is the first examination of historical climate variations at such a scale, and thus sets a benchmark for future research.

Climate Change Research at Universities

Climate Change Research at Universities PDF

Author: Walter Leal Filho

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-06-02

Total Pages: 575

ISBN-13: 3319582143

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This unique book provides a multidisciplinary review of current, climate-change research projects at universities around the globe, offering perspectives from all of the natural and social sciences. Numerous universities worldwide pursue state-of-the-art research on climate change, focussing on mitigation of its effects as well as human adaptation to it. However, the 2015 Paris 21st Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (COP 21)” demonstrated that there is still much room for improvement in the role played by universities in international negotiations and decision-making on climate change. To date, few scientific meetings have provided multidisciplinary perspectives on climate change in which researchers across the natural and social sciences could come together to exchange research findings and discuss methods relating to climate change mitigation and adaption studies. As a result the published literature has also lacked a broad perspective. This book fills that gap and is of interest to all researchers and policy-makers concerned with global climate change regardless of their area of expertise.

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