B11A-0411
Assessing ecosystem response to multiple disturbances and climate change in South Africa using ground- and satellite-based measurements and model
Monday, 14 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Eva Maria Falge1, Werner Leo Kutsch2, Christian Brümmer1, Kanisios Mukwashi1, Christiane Schmullius3, Christian Hüttich3, Victor Odipo3, Robert J. Scholes4, Azwitamisi Mudau5, Guy Midgley6, Nicola Stevens6, Thomas Hickler7, Simon Scheiter8, Carola Martens8, Wayne Twine4, Tetukondjele Iiyambo4, Karen Bradshaw9, Wolfgang Lück10, Ulfia Lenfers11, Thomas Thiel-Clemen11 and Justin du Toit12, (1)Thunen Institute of Climate Smart Agriculture, Braunschweig, Germany, (2)ICOS Headoffice, Helsinki, Finland, (3)Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Department for Earth Observation, Jena, Germany, (4)University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, (5)Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa, (6)Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa, (7)Institute of Physical Geography, Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt/Main, Germany, (8)Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt, Germany, (9)Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, (10)Forest Sense, Pretoria, South Africa, (11)Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany, (12)Grootfontein Agricultural Development Institute, Middelburg, South Africa
Abstract:
Sub-Saharan Africa currently experiences rapidly growing human population, intrinsically tied to substantial changes in land use on shrubland, savanna and mixed woodland ecosystems due to over-exploitation. Significant conversions driving degradation, affecting fire frequency and water availability, and fueling climate change are expected to increase in the immediate future. However, measured data of greenhouse gas emissions as affected by land use change are scarce to entirely lacking from this region. The project 'Adaptive Resilience of Southern African Ecosystems' (ARS AfricaE) conducts research and develops scenarios of ecosystem development under climate change, for management support in conservation or for planning rural area development. This will be achieved by (1) creation of a network of research clusters (paired sites with natural and altered vegetation) along an aridity gradient in South Africa for ground-based micrometeorological in-situ measurements of energy and matter fluxes, (2) linking biogeochemical functions with ecosystem structure, and eco-physiological properties, (3) description of ecosystem disturbance (and recovery) in terms of ecosystem function such as carbon balance components and water use efficiency, (4) set-up of individual-based models to predict ecosystem dynamics under (post) disturbance managements, (5) combination with long-term landscape dynamic information derived from remote sensing and aerial photography, and (6) development of sustainable management strategies for disturbed ecosystems and land use change. Emphasis is given on validation (by a suite of field measurements) of estimates obtained from eddy covariance, model approaches and satellite derivations.
