scholarly journals A Review of the Status of Rothschild’s Giraffe Sub-Species Population in Africa

Author(s):  
George Njagi Gathuku ◽  
Cecilia Gichuki ◽  
Innocent Ngare

Africa is the cradle of the world’s giraffe species and the sub-species that keep evolving with more conservation approaches. However, the population of Rothschild’s Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi) has been impacted at different sects in the wild. The aim of this paper was to review the status of Rothschild’s giraffe in Africa. A desktop descriptive review approach was used through perusal of different scholarly articles on giraffes.  From the existing literature, this review exposes the effect of human effects on giraffes, climate change extremes on wildlife, ecological and significance of wildlife, and socio-economic impacts of communities on giraffes. The existing literature shows the impact of climate change extremes on giraffe habitats, with notable droughts, triggers of diseases, and unfit habitat migrations. Conservation of wildlife has to deal with socio-economic and ecological issues that are complex and, most of the time, overwhelming. We recommend the need for community engagement in conservation of wildlife resources and the development of climate prediction models to better understand climate extremes that happen and affect giraffe habits and population.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  

Abstract This workshop is dedicated on SDGs in the focus of environmental and health issues, as very important and actual topic. One of the characteristics of today's societies is the significant availability of modern technologies. Over 5 billion (about 67%) people have a cellphone today. More than 4.5 billion people worldwide use the Internet, close to 60% of the total population. At the same time, one third of the people in the world does not have access to safe drinking water and half of the population does not have access to safe sanitation. The WHO at UN warns of severe inequalities in access to water and hygiene. Air, essential to life, is a leading risk due to ubiquitous pollution and contributes to the global disease burden (7 million deaths per year). Air pollution is a consequence of traffic and industry, but also of demographic trends and other human activities. Food availability reflects global inequality, famine eradication being one of the SDGs. The WHO warns of the urgency. As technology progresses, social inequality grows, the gap widens, and the environment continues to suffer. Furthermore, the social environment in societies is “ruffled” and does not appear to be beneficial toward well-being. New inequalities are emerging in the availability of technology, climate change, education. The achievement reports on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also point out to the need of reviewing individual indicators. According to the Sustainable Development Agenda, one of the goals is to reduce inequalities, and environmental health is faced by several specific goals. The Global Burden of Disease is the most comprehensive effort to date to measure epidemiological levels and trends worldwide. It is the product of a global research collaborative and quantifies the impact of hundreds of diseases, injuries, and risk factors in countries around the world. This workshop will also discuss Urban Health as a Complex System in the light of SDGs. Climate Change, Public Health impacts and the role of the new digital technologies is also important topic which is contributing to SDG3, improving health, to SDG4, allowing to provide distance health education at relatively low cost and to SDG 13, by reducing the CO2 footprint. Community Engagement can both empower vulnerable populations (so reducing inequalities) and identify the prior environmental issues to be addressed. The aim was to search for public health programs using Community Engagement tools in healthy environment building towards achievement of SDGs. Key messages Health professionals are involved in the overall process of transformation necessary to achieve the SDGs. Health professionals should be proactive and contribute to the transformation leading to better health for the environment, and thus for the human population.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tasneem Chowdhury Fahim ◽  
Bivuti Bhushan Sikder

Abstract Bangladesh is confronting terrible impacts of climate change on agriculture across the country, especially in the low-lying area like- Haor, coastal region, and islands. This behavioral study (N = 320) examines the perception and knowledge of farmers on climate-induced events and experiences, and explores the adaptation practices they adopt to protect crop production and livestock farming from the impact of climate change in the Northeastern Haor area of the country. Using triangulation method, it is detected that farmers of the study area have erroneous idea on climate change and the causes of frequent climate extremes. Study results show that respondents’ perception and experiences on climate-induced event are verified positively with the historical trend and time-series analysis of climate indicators as well as with the findings of researchers using PRA tools and techniques. This study explores the traditional and systematic adaptation approaches of farmers which are practiced in individual or community level. The rationale of each of the approach from respondents’ side is also analyzed in the study. It is statistically tested using chi-square that some of the scientific and systematic adaptation options for crop production is predominantly influenced by the educational qualifications of the respondents. The study reveals that lack of proper information prevents subsistence farmers to find the most effective adaptation pathways.


Author(s):  
Pietro Croce ◽  
Paolo Formichi ◽  
Filippo Landi ◽  
Francesca Marsili

<p>As consequence of global warming extreme weather events might become more frequent and severe across the globe. The evaluation of the impact of climate change on extremes is then a crucial issue for the resilience of infrastructures and buildings and is a key challenge for adaptation planning. In this paper, a suitable procedure for the estimation of future trends of climatic actions is presented starting from the output of regional climate models and taking into account the uncertainty in the model itself. In particular, the influence of climate change on ground snow loads is discussed in detail and the typical uncertainty range is determined applying an innovative algorithm for weather generation. Considering different greenhouse gasses emission scenarios, some results are presented for the Italian Mediterranean region proving the ability of the method to define factors of change for climate extremes also allowing a sound estimate of the uncertainty range associated with different models.</p>


2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geert De Knijf ◽  
Ulrich Flenker ◽  
Cédric Vanappelghem ◽  
Cosmin O. Manci ◽  
Vincent J. Kalkman ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Page ◽  
Martin De Kauwe ◽  
Gab Abramowitz

&lt;p&gt;The vegetation&amp;#8217;s response to climate change is a major source of uncertainty in terrestrial biosphere model (TBM) projections. Constraining carbon cycle feedbacks to climate change requires improving our understanding of both the direct plant physiological responses to global change, as well as the role of legacy effects (e.g. reductions in plant growth, damage to the plant&amp;#8217;s hydraulic transport system), that drive multi-timescale feedbacks. In particular, the role of these legacy effects - both the timescale and strength of the memory effect - have been largely overlooked in the development of model hypotheses. This is despite the knowledge that plant responses to climatic drivers occur across multiple time scales (seconds to decades), with the impact of climate extremes (e.g. drought) resonating for many years. Using data from 13 eddy covariance sites, covering two rainfall gradients in Australia, in combination with a hierarchical Bayesian model, we characterised the timescales of influence of antecedent drivers on fluxes of net carbon exchange and evapotranspiration. Using our data assimilation approach we were able to partition the influence of ecological memory into both biological and environmental components. Overall, we found that the importance of ecological memory to antecedent conditions increased as water availability declines. Our results therefore underline the importance of capturing legacy effects in TBMs used to project responses in water limited ecosystems.&lt;/p&gt;


GCB Bioenergy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Flack‐Prain ◽  
Liangsheng Shi ◽  
Penghui Zhu ◽  
Humberto R. da Rocha ◽  
Osvaldo Cabral ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian H. Gallardo

The Gnangara system is the main source of freshwater for Perth, Western Australia. However, aquifers in the region are under severe stress due to a drying climate, intensive pumping and changes in land use. The aim of this study is to apply the mean rainfall cumulative deviation and Mann-Kendall analyses at 77 monitoring bores to investigate the response of the water table to key recharge components. This information is critical for setting new allocation limits and reviewing current policies in the region. Results show that overall there is a good correspondence between water levels and rainfall fluctuations. Areas of groundwater recharge are highly sensitive to climate change and have been severely affected by reduction in rainfall rates in recent years. Further, removal of pine plantations correlated well with a rise in groundwater levels although the effect seems to be temporary. The impact of pumping is mainly observed in vicinities of public-supply borefields. Elsewhere, water table trends show a relative stabilisation indicating that storage still exceeds the influence of rainfall reduction in areas dominated by through flow or groundwater discharge. The study contributes to update the status of the Gnangara groundwater resource, and provides new insights for the sustainable management of one of the main aquifer systems in Australia.


Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 802
Author(s):  
Alice Caselli ◽  
Ruggero Petacchi

Evidence of the impact of climate change on natural and agroecosystems is nowadays established worldwide, especially in the Mediterranean Basin, an area known to be very susceptible to heatwaves and drought. Olea europaea is one of the main income sources for the Mediterranean agroeconomy, and it is considered a sensitive indicator of the climate change degree because of the tight relationship between its biology and temperature trend. Despite the economic importance of the olive, few studies are nowadays available concerning the consequences that global heating may have on its major pests. Among the climatic parameters, temperature is the key one influencing the relation between the olive tree and its most threatening parasites, including Bactrocera oleae and Prays oleae. Therefore, several prediction models are based on this climatic parameter (e.g., cumulative degree day models). Even if the use of models could be a promising tool to improve pest control strategies and to safeguard the Mediterranean olive patrimony, they are not currently available for most O. europaea pests, and they have to be used considering their limits. This work stresses the lack of knowledge about the biology and the ethology of olive pests under a climate change scenario, inviting the scientific community to focus on the topic.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-58
Author(s):  
Piyali Sengupta

In recent years, climate change is emerging as a major environmental disaster. The impact of such disasters has been the rise in global temperature and flooding of coastal zone communities, frequent droughts and disruptions in rainfall pattern. This has resulted in the increase in the number of environmental refugees. Climate change disasters constitute a major reason for displacement of population than war and persecution. Climate induced migration is a highly complex issue. The status of climate refugees is not recognized in the international framework. The non recognition of these victims in international and national legislations has not only deprived them of their basic human rights but has also raised crucial questions relating to their existence and identity. This paper tries to bring out the lacunae in the present policy and legal framework relating to environmental refugees with reference to the non-refoulement principle. Further, the paper emphasizes on the need to include climate refugees under the term „refugee‟ as laid down in the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951and provides suggestions for improving the condition and protection of this hitherto neglected population.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Van de Walle ◽  
Oscar Brousse ◽  
Roman Brogli ◽  
Matthias Demuzere ◽  
Wim Thiery ◽  
...  

&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Extreme weather is posing constant threat to more than 30 million people living near Lake Victoria or depending on its resources. Thousands of fishermen die every year by severe thunderstorms and associated water currents, while hazardous over-land thunderstorms largely affect people living inland, continuously facing flood risks. These risks call for better understanding of such climate extremes over the region. Climate models are a useful tool to gain insight in the complex behaviour of thunderstorms, especially when simulated at convection-permitting resolution. Such simulations, explicitly resolving deep convection at fine resolutions, have been shown to improve the representation of extreme events in many parts of the world, also in equatorial East-Africa (Finney et al., 2019; Kendon et al., 2019; Van de Walle et al., 2019). As a response, the CORDEX-Flagship Pilot Study &amp;#8220;climate extremes in the Lake Victoria basin&amp;#8221; (ELVIC) initiative is currently setting up an ensemble of convection-permitting simulations over the region.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;At this stage, future climate projections are needed to assess the impact of anthropogenic climate change on extreme weather the region. Therefore, a surrogate global warming approach following Sch&amp;#228;r et al. (1996), Kr&amp;#246;ner et al. (2016), Liu et al. (2016) and Rasmussen et al. (2017) has been applied to a convection-permitting COSMO-CLM simulation. In this approach, the lateral boundary conditions from the ERA5 (~31 km resolution) reanalysis are perturbed in accordance with the recent CMIP6 ensemble-mean end-of-century SSP5 8.5 climate change scenario. This approach confers three major advantages over the more conventional methods. First, by perturbing with the ensemble-mean, it excludes uncertainties of GCMs without the need for a time and computational intensive high resolution ensemble approach. Second, it avoids including present-day circulation biases. Third, no intermediate nesting steps are necessary, as the perturbed ERA5 allows a direct downscaling to the convection-permitting climate projection.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Besides the methodology, results for the Lake Victoria basin will be presented. Although the occurrence of extreme over-lake precipitation in the present-day climate is mostly controlled by large- and mesoscale atmospheric dynamics (Van de Walle et al., 2019), its future intensification is mainly attributed to increased humidity (Thiery et al., 2016). Furthermore, the effect of changed large-scale dynamics is assessed, as not only temperature and humidity, but also wind forcing is modified.&lt;/p&gt;


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