Search results for "Southern Africa"
showing 10 items of 12 documents
Spatial segregation and realized niche shift during the parallel invasion of two olive subspecies in south-eastern Australia.
2015
12 pages; International audience; AimGreater understanding of the processes underlying biological invasions is required to determine and predict invasion risk. Two subspecies of olive (Olea europaea subsp. europaea and Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata) have been introduced into Australia from the Mediterranean Basin and southern Africa during the 19th century. Our aim was to determine to what extent the native environmental niches of these two olive subspecies explain the current spatial segregation of the subspecies in their non-native range. We also assessed whether niche shifts had occurred in the non-native range, and examined whether invasion was associated with increased or decreased oc…
Interannual memory effects for spring NDVI in semi-arid South Africa
2008
[1] Almost 20 years of Normalized Difference Vegetative Index (NDVI) and precipitation (PPT) data are analysed to better understand the interannual memory effects on vegetation dynamics observed at regional scales in Southern Africa (SA). The study focuses on a semi-arid region (25°S–31°S; 21°E–26°E) during the austral early summer (September–December). The memory effects are examined using simple statistical approaches (linear correlations and regressions) which require the definition of an early summer vegetation predictand (December NDVI minus September NDVI) and a consistent set of potential predictors (rainfall amount, number of rainy days, rainfall intensity, NDVI and Rain-Use-Efficie…
Tropical Temperate Toughs over southern Africa : mechanisms and evolution in response to climate change (2010-2099)
2014
In the Southern Hemisphere, Southern Africa and the south-west Indian Ocean are one of the three preferred regions where interactions between the tropics and midlatitudes develop. This is the South Indian Convergence Zone (SICZ), where northwest-southeast oriented cloud bands form at the synoptic scale (between 3 and 5 days). These bands are mainly found during the austral summer and are commonly referred to as tropical temperate troughs (TTTs). This research aims at improving our knowledge related to TTTs, with a study on the dynamics associated with these systems, and an analysis of their possible evolution during the 21st century.The first part of this thesis aims at identifying favorabl…
Influence of the Madden-Julian Oscillation on Southern African summer rainfall
2007
Rain-causing mechanisms over Southern Africa (south of 15˚S) involve both tropical and temperate dynamics. Most studies focused on the synoptical timescale, while the intraseasonal (20-120 days) variability has more been neglected to date. This study aims at determining whether the dominant mode of intraseasonal variability in the Tropics, namely the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), has a significant impact on Southern African rainfall and associated atmospheric dynamics. The examination of outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) over Southern Africa shows indeed significant intraseasonal fluctuations at the 30-60 day timescale, i.e. in the pe- riods that are typically reminiscent of the MJO. In ord…
Précipitations et relief en Afrique orientale et australe : modélisations statistiques et géostatistiques.
2008
By considering two examples in Eastern and Southern Africa, this work has two aims: a better understanding of the influence of topography on the spatial distribution of rainfall and an optimal interpolation of station rainfall data, taking into account topography. To this end, an original methodology is developped, partly derived from previous studies focusing on extratropical regions.First, a statistical model is defined. With the help of a multi-scalar decomposition of topographical information into descriptors, a multiple linear regression is performed. This model is used to better understand the relationship between rainfall and topography. In Eastern Africa, the spatial distribution of…
Compared regimes of NDVI and Rainfall in semi-arid regions of Africa
2006
International audience; Bi-monthly normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) at an 8km spatial resolution from the advanced very high resolution radiometers (AVHRR) was used from 1981 to 1995 to analyse the vegetation response to rainfall supply in semi-arid regions of Africa. Within the 200-600 mm annual rainfall belt, for which the apparent NDVI response to rainfall was the strongest, three regions were selected which exhibited different patterns in their NDVI regimes and/or relationships with rainfall. The regions, located in western, southern and eastern Africa, were split into coherent sub-regions in terms of mean regime of photosynthetic activity through a cluster analysis. Overal…
Variations in intensity of the westerly monsoon-like flow from the tropical Atlantic and summer rainfall over equatorial and tropical southern Africa
2009
International audience; An empirical orthogonal function (EOF) of the onshore flow of moisture along the west coast of southern Africa using NCEP-DOE AMIP-2 re-analyses suggests two dominant modes of variability that are linked to: (a) variations within the circulation linked to the mid-latitude westerlies and the South Atlantic anticyclone, (b) the intensity of the westerly flow from the tropical Atlantic. The second mode, referred to as the Equatorial Westerly mode, contributes the most to moisture input from the Atlantic onto the subconti-nent at tropical latitudes. This mode appears to be associated with large-scale rainfall anomalies over the upper lands surrounding the Congo basin in …
Pluviométrie et circulation atmosphérique simulées par le modèle régional WRF en Afrique australe : sensibilité à la physique et variabilité interne
2011
This study evaluates the capability of the regional climate model WRF to simulate Southern African rainfall and associated atmospheric circulation, particularly over South Africa, a country covered by a dense network of in situ observations. Three sets of simulations are performed at a 35km horizontal resolution during the core of the austral rainy season (December to February: DJF) with 6-hourly forcings provided by ERA40 reanalysis. The first set quantifies sensitivity of the simulated climate to the parameterizations of atmospheric convection, planetary boundary layer and microphysics. The retained case study (DJF 1993-1994: DJF94) is representative of the South African rainfall climatol…
Tropical Temperate Toughs over southern Africa: mechanisms and evolution in response to climate change
2015
In the Southern Hemisphere, Southern Africa and the south-west Indian Ocean are one of the three preferred regions where interactions between the tropics and midlatitudes develop. This is the South Indian Convergence Zone (SICZ), where northwest-southeast oriented cloud bands form at the synoptic scale (between 3 and 5 days). These bands are mainly found during the austral summer and are commonly referred to as tropical temperate troughs (TTTs). This research aims at improving our knowledge related to TTTs, with a study on the dynamics associated with these systems, and an analysis of their possible evolution during the 21st century.The first part of this thesis aims at identifying favorab…
Consistent phenological shifts in the making of a biodiversity hotspot: the Cape flora
2011
Abstract Background The best documented survival responses of organisms to past climate change on short (glacial-interglacial) timescales are distributional shifts. Despite ample evidence on such timescales for local adaptations of populations at specific sites, the long-term impacts of such changes on evolutionary significant units in response to past climatic change have been little documented. Here we use phylogenies to reconstruct changes in distribution and flowering ecology of the Cape flora - South Africa's biodiversity hotspot - through a period of past (Neogene and Quaternary) changes in the seasonality of rainfall over a timescale of several million years. Results Forty-three dist…