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PAGES Africa
Pan Africa Workshop, July 2004
The Pan Africa PAGES Workshop on African Palaeoperspectives: Linking the Past to the Present and the Future was held from 19th to 20th July, 2004 in Nairobi, Kenya. The meeting was supported by START (through the USCCRP African Research Grants Program), PAGES and INQUA.
The genesis of this meeting goes back to the PAGES Scientific Steering Committee meeting of June, 2003, though the issues raised have come up time and again from the 1990s to date in different for a. PAGES SSC noted that the African palaeoclimate community is not ?visible enough? in the international arena as a cohesive and well-networked unit. The scientists tend to work in isolation, have serious research funding and related travel constraints, and generally lack both a medium and forum within which they can interact and exchange information both regionally and internationally. Yet, Africa still remains one of the regions about which much more information is required if we are to better our present understanding of the earth’s palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment, and contribute to a better understanding of earth system function.
Consequently, the PAGES SSC resolved to hold its meeting in 2004 in Nairobi from 16-18 July, and immediately thereafter, host the Pan Africa PAGES Workshop, from 19-20th July 2004. The workshop brought to the fore information on Africa’s palaeoclimate, and has planted the seeds necessary to catalyse research, collaboration and networking amongst African scientists and with those from other regions. The workshop provided a forum for scientists to interact with PAGES SSC members and to obtain more details on how to join and contribute to this very successful international effort to better understand the earth system.
The meeting was centred around the themes indicated below:
Theme 1: African palaeoenvironments: paleoenvironments and paleoclimate using a multiproxy data and modeling approach.
- document the amplitude, phase and geographic extent of climate change in the African region,
- determine the history of potentially important forcing factors,
- identify the important feedbacks which amplify or reduce the influence the effect of these forcings,
- identify the mechanisms of climatic coupling between Africa’s sub-regions and globally.
Theme 2: Climate variability at annual, interannual, decadal and longer time scales: especially as relevant to improving predictability, through the use of high resolution paleoclimatic data such as corals, tree-rings, varved sediments and ice cores.
- Dynamics of low-latitude climate change
- Global ocean thermohaline variability
- Regional-scale hydrologic variability including coastal zones
- Dynamics of abrupt climatic change
- Model evaluation and improvement
- Climate change detection
Theme 3: Marine Records off the Coast of Africa:
- Mechanisms and consequences of past climate changes on ocean circulation, salinity, ventilation, carbon sequestration and flux, using oceanic sedimentary records.
- Marine records of terrestrial processes and land cover change
- Land-Ocean interactions
Theme 4: Past Ecosystem Processes and Human-Environment Interactions: integrates past human-environment interactions at subcontinental scale with research and modeling based on present day ecosystems and watersheds.
- Human Impacts on Terrestrial Ecosystems
- Land Use and Climate Impacts on Fluvial Systems During the Period of Agriculture
- Human Impact on Lake Ecosystems
Summary of Presentations
As shown by the different presentations, ranging from morphological _ hydrological studies in Malawi to isotope modeling in Ethiopian Lakes, from human impacts on East African lake ecosystems to paleo reconstructions from ocean sediments off Africa, this continent provides a huge and impressive amount of paleo information. After 10 years, the PAGES IDEAL Programme (Past Global Changes _ International Decade of African Lakes) is coming to synthesis. As reported by Prof. Johnson, Lake Malawi provides a unique archive spanning back probably 1 million years. Those lake sediments provide evidence of changing tropical atmospheric circulation south of the Equator. Similar results were presented by M.Umer and D. Legesse from the Ethiopian Lakes north of the equator. Changing atmospheric circulation influenced strongly the ecosystems in the past and has also had a recent impact on those densely populated East African regions. Under economic and societal pressure, the East African Lake ecosystems suffer especially due to intensified land and water use. Changing lake levels, enhanced pollution and overfishing have drastically affected these unique ecosystems. Future developments must have a strong and controlled management if these fantastic ecosystems are to exist in the future. Dramatic human impact and related effects on Lake Naivasha were presented as an example for the vulnerable region by G. Owiti from the Kenyan Wildlife Service. West African presentations concentrated on the human impact on coastal environments in Nigeria and changes in recent precipitation patterns. After two days of presentations, a plenary discussion enabled participants to focus on educational and international collaborations. African research needs a stronger interaction with the international community, better communication and help gathering financial resources.
Discussion Outcomes
The participants were involved in a lively and fruitful discussion on how to push the PAGES agenda forward. The issues raised and the actions proposed are summarised below.
1. Increasing Visibility
- Register in the People Data Base
- Paleoclimate and modern environmental data base of observations
- Increasing Internet access and band width
- Workshops and Training opportunities
- List server for African scientists/& mailings
- Journal access-PERI Program
- Attend Society meetings/Present papers/Publish – EUG, AGU, African Geological Society
- Push Hard! Science Funding Source (e.g., START; PhD fellowships)
- Need for dialog with Govt/reduce Red tape
- Media outreach of science issues
2. Mentoring
- Create hope for jobs and facilities;
- Advocate for student opportunities
- Provide feedback via the Grant process
- Seed money for Projects; lab work: could include: Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS); UNESCO Grants; European Assoc. of Organic Geochemists (EAOG); START-Visiting Scientists program; DAAD ; IUAES - Intern Union of Anthro and Ethnol. Sci.
- Overcome problems - technical details, age limits
- Develop Regional START offices
- Data base of mentors
3. Networking and Information Exchange
- Make contacts with IGBP national committees (see IGBP web site for names and addresses)
- Hold Paleoclimate Conferences for Africa on regular basis
4. Opportunities for Joint and/or Coordinated Research
- IUAES - Intern Union of Anthro and Ethnol. Sci.
- IMAGES cruises -- marine partnerships
- Develop ?Centers of Excellence?
- Agreed Team Based (Theme) Programs within Africa Research Topics, due end of August for submission to various funding agencies:
- - Evolution of African Coastline (start with Nigeria); Regional Variability of Records (Fasona, Ama, Okuku);
- - Little Ice Age impacts across Africa;
- - Limnology of African Lakes - Lake Victoria (Ssemanda, Kishe, Njuguna);
- - Rift Valley Lakes (Mohammed, Opere, Budeba);
- - Malawi and Congo, Zambia-- Land Use Climatology and Groundwater.
Achievements and Outputs
The July 2004 workshop has achieved the following objectives:
1. Bringing together paleoscientists working in Africa to enhance collaboration, networking and information exchange between African scientists, and establishing strong connections with other scientists from outside the continent.
2. Capacity building and strengthening of institutional linkages within Africa.
3. Emphasizing the relevance of paleoclimatic research to better understand modern day and future climate and environmental change.
The following outputs will be forthcoming:
1. Workshop Report
2. Publication of papers presented in a special issue of Quaternary International. The papers are currently in the process of being compiled for onward transmission to reviewers. The publication date for the papers is early to mid 2005.
Summary
Education and future research in Africa must include a better integration of the local research institutes and also reach topics and scientists besides the hot issues, in order to provide help for a broader integration of African scientists. It is the aim of ongoing PAGES collaboration to involve African scientists in international research, to produce a special journal issue in order to hopefully reproduce the success of the Russian workshop example. The Nairobi conference showed how international funding and networking may be used to boost essential scientific development and was greatly appreciated by local scientists.
For more information contact:
Dr. Daniel Olago
PAGES-START Africa Regional Centre
Pan African START Secretariat
Department of Geology
University of Nairobi
PO Box 30197, Nairobi, Kenya
http://wdc.uonbi.ac.ke/
pass@uonbi.ac.ke |
