Climate variability and change over southern Africa: impacts and challenges

Abstract

In this paper, the influence of climate variability and change on the environment was studied over southern Africa using ground‐based and remotely sensed data. A time series analysis of rainfall and temperature anomalies indicated that there was a high rainfall and temperature variability in the region. The influence of global teleconnections on rainfall patterns over southern Africa showed that in some areas there was a spatial variation in their strength, increasing from west to east. Maps of NDVI, from 1982 to 2004, showed that changes in vegetation cover were more apparent during the dry season than during the wet season. The study also revealed that climate variability and change are linked to decreasing rainfall and hence, decreasing regional water resources and biodiversity and increasing environmental degradation. With the regional population expected increase, this depletion of resources poses the greatest regional environmental challenge to humankind.

Livestock population dynamics and pastoral communities’ adaptation to rainfall variability in communal lands of Kgalagadi South, Botswana

“…In Africa, the agro-pastoral production systems are mostly vulnerable to increased climate variability (Stige et al 2006;Sithole and Murewi 2009) as they are principally dependant on natural resources (Stringer et al 2009). The traditional beef sector in Botswana is highly vulnerable to drought (Thomas et al 2000) and climate change (Masike and Urich 2008).…”

Climate Change Adaptation and Vulnerability: A Case of Rain Dependent Small-Holder Farmers in Selected Districts in Zambia

“…Confounded with HIV/AIDS, climate change i.e. variabilities in the climatic conditions (rainfall and temperature) is expected to have intense severity on food crop production in Zambia and much of Southern Africa making it more difficult to grow crops, raise animals, and catch fish or do business using conventional methods [3] [4]. According to [5], Zambia was ranked at number 17 out of the top 20 countries in the 2008 rankings that will experience severe impacts from extreme weather events in 2015.…”

Influence of drought and flooding on the colonisation of floodplain pans by riverine fish in the Zimbabwean lowveld

“…The 2006/2007 season experienced a drought and the pans were only minimally inundated by scanty flash floods, but the inundation was not sufficient to establish a connection to the river, therefore they did not contain fish in that year. In contrast, the 2007/2008 rainy season was characterised by massive floods that swept throughout the eastern parts of southern Africa, as a result of a tropical cyclone similar to cyclone Eline that ravaged the region in 1999/2000 (Sithole and Murewi 2009). This resulted in Suni Pan filling to maximum capacity and the other three pans, which are much closer to the river channel, also filled and became inaccessible.…”

“…This raises the question of how climatic change will impact on the systems, as it has been predicted that this part of southern Africa will (Sithole and Murewi 2009). This could cause local extinctions of species that are adapted to the annual or periodical flood pulse to complete their life cycles, and only those species that can aestivate in the dry pans, such as killifish or lungfish (Jubb 1971, Pienaar 1981, might survive.…”