Temporal relationship between climate variability, Prosopis juliflora invasion and livestock numbers in the drylands of Magadi, Kenya

Kyuma, Richard; Wahome, R.G.; M, Kinama J.; Wasonga, Oliver Vivian

doi:10.5897/ajest2015.2034

Cited by 8 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Our findings that by 1988 Prosopis covered some 882 ha is comparable to estimates reported by Mwangi and Swallow [33] (739.5 ha by 1990). Our estimate of the average annual increase in Prosopis coverage (640 ha) is within the range reported by Kyuma et al [25], who reported that Prosopis spread at an average annual rate of around 532 ha/a on hillslopes and of 13 to 1309 ha/a in the floodplains in Kajiado County in southern Kenya. Visual comparisons of our Prosopis map with the mapping output from Ng et al [21] using higher spatial resolution data (Sentinel-2 and Pléiades) also show an agreement of the invasion distribution.…”

Section: Spatial Changes In Prosopis Coveragesupporting

confidence: 89%

“…In Kenya, Kyuma [25] mapped the spatiotemporal changes in Prosopis distribution between 2000-2013 in the southern part of Kenya using MODIS NDVI and net primary productivity products at 250m spatial resolution. Other studies, although not spatiotemporal in nature, mapped P. juliflora using Landsat 8 imagery and ground information [26,27], and evaluated the effectiveness in Landsat 8 data to map Prosopis in Somaliland.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial Evolution of Prosopis Invasion and its Effects on LULC and Livelihoods in Baringo, Kenya

Mbaabu

Schaffner

et al. 2019

Remote Sensing

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Woody alien plant species have been deliberately introduced globally in many arid and semi-arid regions, as they can provide services and goods to the rural poor. However, some of these alien trees and shrubs have become invasive over time, with important impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being. Prosopis was introduced in Baringo County, Kenya, in the 1980s, but since then, it has spread rapidly from the original plantations to new areas. To assess land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes and dynamics in Baringo, we used a combination of dry and wet season Landsat satellite data acquired over a seven-year time interval between 1988–2016, and performed a supervised Random Forest classification. For each time interval, we calculated the extent of Prosopis invasion, rates of spread, gains and losses of specific LULC classes, and the relative importance of Prosopis invasion on LULC changes. The overall accuracy and kappa coefficients of the LULC classifications ranged between 98.1–98.5% and 0.93–0.96, respectively. We found that Prosopis coverage increased from 882 ha in 1988 to 18,792 ha in 2016. The highest negative changes in LULC classes were found for grasslands (−6252 ha; −86%), irrigated cropland (−849 ha; −57%), Vachellia tortilis-dominated vegetation (−3602 ha; −42%), and rainfed cropland (−1432 ha; −37%). Prosopis invasion alone directly accounted for over 30% of these negative changes, suggesting that Prosopis invasion is a key driver of the observed LULC changes in Baringo County. Although the management of Prosopis by utilization has been promoted in Baringo for 10–15 years, the spread of Prosopis has not stopped or slowed down. This suggests that Prosopis management in Baringo and other invaded areas in East Africa needs to be based on a more integrated approach.

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Section: Spatial Changes In Prosopis Coveragesupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Evolution of Prosopis Invasion and its Effects on LULC and Livelihoods in Baringo, Kenya

Mbaabu

Schaffner

et al. 2019

Remote Sensing

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“…The invasive spread started from the original plantation sites in the late 1990s, invading the local vegetation and increasingly restricting physical access to lake shores and river banks (Coppock, Aboud, & Kisoyan, ). This trend is consistent with other Prosopis introductions turning to invasions in Kenya as described by Kyuma, Wahome, Kinama, and Wasoga () for Magadi County, Zeila () for Garissa County and Muturi, Mohren, and Kimani () for Turkwell County.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Classification of Prosopis juliflora invasion in the Lake Baringo basin and environmental correlations

et al. 2019

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The spread of Prosopis juliflora in the Baringo basin, Kenya, has led to severe changes in the ecosystem with negative socio‐economic impacts. The drivers that foster the invasiveness of Prosopis are not fully understood. Thus, a method to quantify the degree of infestation will support the determination of environmental preferences and the risk assessment of future Prosopis invasion. We developed a methodology for characterising and classifying degrees of Prosopis infestation in vegetation stands and propose its application in environmental correlation models. The relative cover was identified as the most suited attribute for assessing and monitoring the invasion of Prosopis. The distance of invaded stands from original plantations and environmental attributes related to water availability (ground water table, rainfall and soil water–holding capacity) have potential to predict potential or future invasion risks.

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“…In recent years, the southern Kenya Rift is further affected by rapid invasion of Prosopis juliflora (Kyuma et al, 2016), an invasive subaerial plant species originating from Central and South America, which predominately occupies extensive regions on floodplain deposits in the Koora Graben, and along hillslopes in the Lake Magadi basin and Ewaso Ngiro plain.…”

Section: Topography Climate and Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lithological and Topographic Impact on Soil Nutrient Distributions in Tectonic Landscapes: Implications for Pleistocene Human-Landscape Interactions in the Southern Kenya Rift

et al. 2021

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Tectonically active regions are characterized by complex landscapes comprising soils with heterogeneous physicochemical properties. Spatial variability of nutrient sources enhances landscape biodiversity and creates heterogeneous habitats potentially attractive for animals and humans. In this study, we analyze the role of geological processes in the distributions of soil nutrients in the southern Kenya Rift, a key region in the interpretation of early human-landscape interactions. Our aim is to determine how spatial variations in rock chemistry, as well as topographic gradients and localized zones of rock fracturing from tectonic faulting determine the distributions of plant-available soil nutrients in soils. We hypothesize that present-day soil nutrient levels reflect the long-term chemical and geomorphological characteristics of the landscape and underlying parent material, and that regions with high nutrient availability occur along pathways correlating with locations of hominin fossil sites. Analyses of 91 topsoil samples from the main geological units show that Calcium (Ca) deficiencies predominately occur in shallow soils developed on trachytic volcanic rocks and granitic gneisses, while high Ca levels are associated with basaltic parent material and sedimentary deposits of mixed sources. XRF analysis of rock samples confirms that CaO levels in trachyte rocks are significantly lower than those in basalts, and Ca mobilization in basalt is more effective than in trachyte. Along two toposequences in densely faulted basaltic and trachytic rocks, we observed slope dependent soil nutritional gradients and a systematic increase of the concentrations of Ca, Mg and SOC in topsoils of colluvial sediments downslope of active normal faults. Known hominin sites in the region are located either along corridors of long-term Ca availability or at short-term nutrient hotspots potentially related to active CO2 degassing along active fault zones. This implies a strategic advantage of Ca-rich regions for hominin subsistence strategies, such as provision of predictable constraints on the distribution and mobility of grazing animals in complex tectonic landscapes. Our study implies that geological processes impact nutrient distributions in the southern Kenya Rift. Results of this study have further implications for understanding the role of soils in the interpretation of hominin-landscape interactions in the early stages of human evolution.

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Temporal relationship between climate variability, Prosopis juliflora invasion and livestock numbers in the drylands of Magadi, Kenya

Cited by 8 publications

References 22 publications

Spatial Evolution of Prosopis Invasion and its Effects on LULC and Livelihoods in Baringo, Kenya

Spatial Evolution of Prosopis Invasion and its Effects on LULC and Livelihoods in Baringo, Kenya

Classification of Prosopis juliflora invasion in the Lake Baringo basin and environmental correlations

Lithological and Topographic Impact on Soil Nutrient Distributions in Tectonic Landscapes: Implications for Pleistocene Human-Landscape Interactions in the Southern Kenya Rift

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