Lake drying and livelihood dynamics in Lake Chad: Unravelling the mechanisms, contexts and responses

The present study investigated the effect of biomass burning on the water cycle using a case study of the Chari–Logone Catchment of the Lake Chad Basin (LCB). The Chari–Logone catchment was selected because it supplies over 90% of the water input to the lake, which is the largest basin in central Africa. Two water balance simulations, one considering burning and one without, were compared from the years 2003 to 2011. For a more comprehensive assessment of the effects of burning, albedo change, which has been shown to have a significant impact on a number of environmental factors, was used as a model input for calculating potential evapotranspiration (ET). Analysis of the burning scenario showed that burning grassland, which comprises almost 75% of the total Chari–Logone land cover, causes increased ET and runoff during the dry season (November–March). Recent studies have demonstrated that there is an increasing trend in the LCB of converting shrubland, grassland, and wetlands to cropland. This change from grassland to cropland has the potential to decrease the amount of water available to water bodies during the winter. All vegetative classes in a burning scenario showed a decrease in ET during the wet season. Although a decrease in annual precipitation in global circulation processes such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation would cause droughts and induce wildfires in the Sahel, the present study shows that a decrease in ET by the human-induced burning would cause a severe decrease in precipitation as well.

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Tectono-magmatic reactivation of Téfidet Cretaceous trough during Cenozoic (Aïr, Niger)

BSGF - Earth Sciences Bulletin ◽

10.2113/gssgfbull.187.2.73 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 187 (2) ◽

pp. 73-82 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Yacouba Ahmed ◽

Moussa Konaté ◽

Moussa Harouna

Keyword(s):

Volcanic Activity ◽

Upper Jurassic ◽

South Atlantic ◽

The South ◽

Lake Chad ◽

Pan African ◽

The Relationship ◽

Extension Period

AbstractThe Téfidet trough (eastern Niger) belongs to the Ténéré megasystem set of Cretaceous rifts N130°E to N170°E oriented, corresponding to the direction of the Lake Chad-Hoggar tectonic axis.The study of the relationship between the structure of the trough and alkaline fissural volcanism that developed there from the Oligocene to Plio-Quaternary shows the uniqueness of the Téfidet trough compared to the neighboring contemporary volcanic areas of Hoggar, Cameroon, and southern Aïr.The tectono-magmatic reactivation of the Cretaceous Téfidet trough developed in two steps: – a period contemporaneous with the Tuareg shield bulging (Aïr, Hoggar, Iforas);– a subsequent extension period generally N060°E, which has persisted since the opening of the South Atlantic (upper Jurassic to Plio-Quaternary).The fissural volcanism, due to the reactivation of Pan African and Cretaceous faults evolved concomitantly with the N060°E extension (syn-magmatic micro-fractures with basaltic filling), in several steps, from Oligocene to Plio-Quaternary.This study highlights the existence of periods of quietness and recovery of volcanic activity, for which two assumptions can be made: – no enough absolute datings,– apolyphased extension of the rift.The latter hypothesis seems to be supported by three periods of volcanic quietness, 28–24 m.y., 20–14 m.y. and 8–5 m.y., observed in the northern and the southern Aïr, Gréboun and Todgha, respectively.

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