MARUM Workshop: Response of North African ecosystems to abrupt climate change

 africa_workshop_2.JPG

(download the photo here)

Recent studies suggest that the regional distribution of tropical sea-surface temperatures has a profound influence on precipitation patterns over Africa. Furthermore, changes in precipitation over the African continent have a major influence on the rate and composition of the vegetation cover, the rate of fluvial discharge, and on the production and distribution of dust. Sediments deposited in lakes on the continent as well as in the ocean off Africa continuously record the history of vegetation cover and terrigenous sediment input. In addition, marine sediments also register the hydrographical conditions of the overlying ocean.

This 3-day workshop will bring together leading international scientists in African palaeoclimate reconstruction, from both the marine and terrestrial realms, archaeology, paleoclimate modelling as well as experts in monsoon dynamics. The workshop aims to explore the role of Africa in global climate change throughout the geological past, the present and the future. Consequences for marine and terrestrial ecosystems will be illuminated. Contributors are encouraged to present recent results from either terrestrial or marine archives, climate modelling and/or data analysis.

The program consisted of keynote talks and short presentations and dealing with the following themes:

Present-day climate controls and weather systems

• Sharon Nicholson (Florida State University, USA)
  The myths and realities about North African climate: a new look at present controls and interannual variability.
• Andrea Sealy (NCAR Boulder, USA)
  The impact of dynamic vegetation on dust and Sahel precipitation
• Peter Knippertz (University of Mainz, Germany)
  Meteorological conditions for dust mobilisation in the Sahara
• Jost Heintzenberg (SAMUM / University of Leipzig, Germany)
  Effect of Saharan dust on the energy balance, weather and climate
• Andreas Fink (University of Cologne, Germany)
  Analyses of present-day high-impact weather events associated with the West African Monsoon
• Kerry Cook (Cornell University, USA)
  Dynamics of the West African Monsoon: Present Day, African Humid Period, and the Abrupt Transition

Evidence for paleoclimate change (terrestrial & marine)

• Henry Lamb (University of Wales, UK)
  Pleistocene desiccation of Lake Tana, source of the blue Nile
• Lydie Dupont (MARUM Bremen, Germany)
  Over 30 000 years of vegetation development and climate change in Angola (Ocean Drilling Program Site 1078)
• Thomas Johnson (University of Minnesota Duluth, USA)
  Megadroughts and D-O Events in the African tropics during the past 150 kyrs: results from the Lake Malawi Drilling Project.
• Dirk Verschuren (University of Gent, Belgium)
  Climate change on the East African equator due to tropical and high-latitude climate forcing
• John Peck (University of Akron, USA)
  Lake Bosumtwi (Ghana) sedimentary records of environmental change
• Gerhard Schmiedl (University of Hamburg, Germany)
  Paleoclimate reconstructions from sediment cores from the eastern Mediterranean
• Raphaël Sarr (University of Dakar, Senegal)
  Sea-level and climatic changes evidenced by microfaunas (foraminiferas, ostracodes) in the Upper Holocene of Retba Lake (Senegal, West Africa)
• Helge Arz (GFZ Potsdam, Germany)
  Glacial and Holocene climate variability at the northeastern rim of Africa: paleo-environmental records from the northern Red Sea

Human response to climate change

• Peter Breunig (University of Frankfurt, Germany)
  Late Holocene Cultural Change in West Africa
• Katarina Neumann (University of Frankfurt, Germany)
  The third millennium BP Central African rainforest crisis and the Bantu question
• Heiko Paeth (University of Würzburg, Germany)
  Climate models and regional climate change in Africa - implications for food security and health
• Cullen Hendrix (University of California, USA)
  The Smoking Gun? Climate Change, Interannual Resource Variability and Conflict in Africa
• Stefan Kröpelin (University of Cologne, Germany)
  Latitude-dependent human response to Holocene climate change in NE Africa

Mechanisms of climate change in Africa

• Victor Brovkin (PIK Potsdam, Germany)
  Interactions between local and large-scale feedbacks in North Africa
• Martin Claussen (MPI Hamburg, Germany)
  Climate and vegetation change in North Africa - interpretation by climate system models
• Zheng-Yu Liu (Universtiy of Wisconsin, USA)
  Simulating the transient evolution of northern Africa - interpretation by climate system models
• Bette Otto-Bliesner (NCAR Boulder, USA)
  PMIP2 coupled simulations of the Mid-Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum West African climate

Additional confirmed participants:

 2007-11-08_final_program.pdf

Final version with one last-minute cancellation

 final_program_book_web.pdf

final version
a printout of this book will be availale for all registered participants

Please feel free to contact us at african-workshop2007@marum.de
for further information.

Last update: 6 November 2007

Jan-Berend Stuut
Stefan Mulitza
Matthias Prange