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| Titel |
Integration of observations, modelling approaches and remote sensing to address ecosystem response to climate change and disturbance in Africa |
| VerfasserIn |
Eva Falge, Christian Brümmer |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2017
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 19 (2017) |
| Datensatznummer |
250150121
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2017-14549.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| African societies face growing global change challenges and several associated risks. These
include rapidly changing patterns of human settlements and an intensified use of ecosystem
services. At the same time, climate variability and change are amplifying stress on the
functionality of ecosystems and their critical role as important greenhouse gas sinks. A recent
review (Valentini et al. 2014) attests Africa a key role in the global carbon cycle contributing
an absolute annual carbon sink (-0.61 ± 0.58 Pg C yr−1), which may partly been
offset through understudied emissions of CH4 and N2O. The net sink strength is
characterized by a substantial sub-regional spatial variability due to biome distribution
and degree of anthropogenic influences. 52% of the global carbon emissions by
fire are due to African wildfires, which contribute with 1.03 ± 0.22 Pg C yr−1
twice the emissions caused by land use change in Africa (0.51 ± 0.10 Pg C yr−1).
Moreover, a quarter of the interannual variability of the global carbon budget is due
to the year-to-year variation (± 0.5 Pg C yr−1) of carbon fluxes on the African
continent.
Among the archetypes to address the above-mentioned challenges in an integrated and
multidisciplinary way are better data bases which serve as constraints for atmospheric data
and models, thorough attempts to reduce GHG flux uncertainties, or enhanced understanding
of climatic, hydrological, and socio-economic drivers of temporal and spatial variability of
GHG balances. Some examples from the ARS-AfricaE project that will serve to illustrate the
wide range of such activities include:
Measurements of CO2 exchange, ecosystem structure and eco-physiological
properties at paired sites with natural and managed vegetation,
Further development and application of the adaptive Dynamic Global Vegetation
Model 2 (aDGVM2) to investigate the influence of different atmospheric CO2
scenarios on carbon pools and fluxes of a selected ecosystem in Skukuza, Kruger
National Park, South Africa,
Setting up individual-based models to predict ecosystem dynamics under (post-)
disturbance management,
Monitoring vegetation amount and heterogeneity using remotely sensed images
and aerial photography over several decades to examine time series of land cover
change, and
Investigations of livelihood strategies with focus on carbon balance components
to develop sustainable management strategies for disturbed ecosystems and land
use change.
Despite recent advances, major innovations in understanding carbon cycle, greenhouse gases, air
quality and measures of adaptation to and mitigation of climate change are still limited
by the lack of global accessibility and comparability of relevant data (open data
issues), long-term and sustainable interdisciplinary and trans-institutional research
collaborations, and ongoing effective dialogues on multiple levels (policy, science, society). |
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