Search results for "Sahel"
showing 10 items of 31 documents
Toros-Menalla (Chad, 7 Ma), the earliest hominin-bearing area: how many mammal paleocommunities?
2014
12 pages; International audience; The fossiliferous area of Toros-Menalla (TM) (Djurab Desert, northern Chad) has yielded one of the richest African mammal faunas of the late Miocene. It is also the place where the earliest known hominin, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, was found. Although more than 300 localities are recorded in that area, previous paleoecological studies focused only on the largest and richest one. The integration of the material from other TM localities, and thus of a significant number of mammal taxa, is crucial to improve the corresponding paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Before such inferences can be drawn, it is necessary to test for the ecological integrity of these m…
Evolutionary history of two cryptic species of northern African jerboas
2020
Abstract Background: Climatic variation and geologic change both play significant roles in shaping species distributions, thus affecting their evolutionary history. In Sahara-Sahel, climatic oscillations shifted the desert extent during the Pliocene-Pleistocene interval, triggering the diversification of several species. Here, we investigated how these biogeographical and ecological events have shaped patterns of genetic diversity and divergence in African Jerboas, desert specialist rodents. We focused on two sister and cryptic species, Jaculus jaculus and J. hirtipes, where we (1) evaluated their genetic differentiation, (2) reconstructed their evolutionary and demographic history; (3) tes…
Broad-front migration leads to strong migratory connectivity in the lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni)
2019
Aim: Migratory animals regularly move between often distant breeding and non‐breeding ranges. Knowledge about how these ranges are linked by movements of individuals from different populations is crucial for unravelling temporal variability in population spatial structuring and for identifying environmental drivers of population dynamics acting at different spatio‐temporal scales. We performed a large‐scale individual‐based migration tracking study of an Afro‐Palaearctic migratory raptor, to determine the patterns of migratory connectivity of European breeding populations. Location: Europe, Africa. Methods: Migration data were recorded using different devices (geolocators, satellite transmi…
Vers une diversification des catégories d'enseignants et/ou des structures d'enseignement dans les pays du Sahel ?
1998
International audience
Interannual and decadal SST-forced responses of the West African monsoon
2010
International audience; We review the studies carried out during the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA)-EU on the changes of interannual sea surface temperature (SST)-West African monsoon (WAM) covariability at multidecadal timescales, together with the influence of global warming (GW). The results obtained in the AMMA-EU suggest the importance of the background state, modulated by natural and anthropogenic variability, in the appearance of different interannual modes. The lack of reliability of current coupled models in giving a realistic assessment for WAM in the future is also stated.
The climate change effect on the african monsoon region : evolution of the precipitation and atmospheric fields in the CMIP3 and CMIP5 simulations un…
2013
The fourth IPCC report in 2007 established the synthesis of previously published work onthe effects of climate change on global and regional scales. It shows in particular that no consensuscan be found with regard to the future of rainfall — and atmospheric dynamics- associatedwith region — African monsoon. This dissertation revisits this issue in the light of new dataand using an approach avoiding over-representation of the number of simulations available forone type of model and taking into account the diversity of models and their evolution in time :twenty general circulation models (GCMs) participating in the exercises CMIP3 (twelve GCMs)and CMIP5 (eight GCMs) under the A1B emissions sc…
Erosion en milieu sableux cultivé au Niger : dynamique actuelle et passée en liaison avec la pression anthropique et les changements climatiques
2011
Sahelian ecosystems, especially those installed on sandy soils react very quickly and intensely to small climatic changes. In this semi-arid area, wind erosion which occurs mainly on cultivated millet fields and is threatening the sustainable use of land resources. Furthermore, the rapid population growth and the severe droughts of the twentieth century have had important impacts on ecosystems. To better manage this fragile environment, it is important first to understand how it works. This thesis was included in the framework of the AMMA project (African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses) and was in the heart of a CORUS 2 (Coopération pour la Recherche Universitaire et Scientifique) progr…
Classification et chronologie de bas fourneaux de réduction du fer à usage unique au sud-ouest du Niger
2016
In southwestern Niger, near Niamey, several thousand single-use bloomery furnaces have been mapped and identified. The archaeological study of approximately 30 furnaces and their slag reveals the existence of four methods for iron smelting: three types of pit furnace and one slag-tapping type. The slag pit furnaces are clearly differentiated by the form and volume of their pits. All slag-tapping furnaces drain off slag through small openings. The slag is tapped either vertically or laterally. According to radiocarbon dates, the smelting activity developed in the 2 nd century AD and intensified through to the 14 th century. It continued to evolve until the middle of the 20 th century. The lo…
Analysis of the linkages between rainfall and land surface conditions in the West African monsoon through CMAP, ERS-WSC, and NOAA-AVHRR data
2005
International audience; The European Remote Sensing Wind Scatterometer (ERS-WSC) backscattering coefficient, NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (NOAA-AVHRR) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and Climate Prediction Center Merged Analysis Precipitation ( CMAP) precipitation data sets are studied over the period August 1991 to December 2000 to document ( 1) the interannual and intra-annual evolutions of vegetation photosynthetic activity and soil-vegetation water content over West Africa and ( 2) their two-way links with precipitation. Over the Sahel, at interannual timescales the strongest relationships between vegetation, soil moisture, and precipitation are observed …
Les vagues de chaleur au Sahel : définition et principales caractéristiques spatio-temporelles (1973-2014).
2016
A definition of heat waves (HW) relevant for dry tropical regions is proposed and tested in the Sahel (i.e. duration,intensity and frequency). The Heat Index (HI derivative of Steadman’s (1979) formula) is calculated on dailydata of 145 West African stations from the GSOD database over the period 1973-2014. HWs recorded inSahelian and Sudanese climates mainly occur in boreal spring, i.e. April-May-June. They are more frequentsince 1998 (+ 8% very hot days, T90p) and they become longer (+1.2 days per decade) and more intense (from+0.3 to 0.4 ° C / decade respectively Sudanese and Sahelian climate) on the end of the period 1973-2014.