Building and Testing an <Emphasis Type="Italic">a priori</Emphasis> Geophysical Model for Western Eurasia and North Africa

We construct and evaluate a new three-dimensional model of crust and upper mantle structure in Western Eurasia and North Africa (WENA) extending to 700 km depth and having 1° parameterization. The model is compiled in an a priori fashion entirely from existing geophysical literature, specifically, combining two regionalized crustal models with a high-resolution global sediment model and a global upper mantle model. The resulting WENA1.0 model consists of 24 layers: water, three sediment layers, upper, middle, and lower crust, uppermost mantle, and 16 additional upper mantle layers. Each of the layers is specified by its depth, compressional and shear velocity, density, and attenuation (quality factors, Q _P and Q _S ). The model is tested by comparing the model predictions with geophysical observations including: crustal thickness, surface wave group and phase velocities, upper mantle _n velocities, receiver functions, P-wave travel times, waveform characteristics, regional 1-D velocities, and Bouguer gravity. We find generally good agreement between WENA1.0 model predictions and empirical observations for a wide variety of independent data sets. We believe this model is representative of our current knowledge of crust and upper mantle structure in the WENA region and can successfully be used to model the propagation characteristics of regional seismic waveform data. The WENA1.0 model will continue to evolve as new data are incorporated into future validations and any new deficiencies in the model are identified. Eventually this a priori model will serve as the initial starting model for a multiple data set tomographic inversion for structure of the Eurasian continent.     

Événements panafricains dans l'Adrar Souttouf (Sahara marocain)

The Adrar Souttouf belt (Western Sahara) lies in the northern part of the Mauritanide belt and was considered as a part of the Hercynian Mauritanian-Appalachian belt. Recently the presence of a Panafrican protolith (595 Ma) was evidenced by the age of inherited zircons from an eclogitic unit and led to consider complex Panafrican events included in the Hercynian belt, as in the central and southern Mauritanide belt. Our new field survey completed by ten KAr dating (whole rocks and separate minerals) confirmed that multiphased Panafrican formations outcrop within the center of the Adrar Souttouf massif. Diverse events ranged from ca. 1000 to 500 Ma, some of them being indicative of an oceanic type environment and metamorphism. The 1000 Ma metamorphic event is recorded for the first time in the West African craton. A large Hercynian remobilisation is also evidenced. To cite this article: M. Villeneuve et al., C. R. Geoscience 338 (2006).     

非洲粮食问题的时空演化研究

非洲粮食生产与发展面临着诸多的困难与挑战,其粮食问题一直是国际社会关注的热点之一。本文研究的非洲粮食问题主要是指其粮食生产、消费及其自给能力方面存在的问题,从时间与空间视角对非洲粮食此类问题的演化过程和成因进行了初步探讨。时间视角上,考虑到20世纪90年代中期到21世纪初期非洲粮食问题表现较为典型,同时限于相关数据获取因素故,仅研究了1994-2007年,非洲粮食生产量、粮食消费量及生产性粮食缺口量的演化;空间视角上,从整体与区域两个层面,探讨了非洲不同粮食自给类型国家的空间差异及演化。最后提出解决非洲粮食问题的相关对策与建议。     

Intraseasonal variability in the equatorial Atlantic-West Africa during March–June

Intraseasonal (30–80 days) variability in the equatorial Atlantic-West African sector during March–June is investigated using various recently-archived satellite measurements and the NCEP/DOE AMIP-II reanalysis daily data. The global connections of regional intraseasonal signals are first examined for the period of 1979–2006 through lag-regression analyses of convection (OLR) and other dynamic components against a regional intraseasonal convective (OLR) index. The eastward-propagating features of convection can readily be seen, accompanied by coherent circulation anomalies, similar to those for the global tropical intraseasonal mode, i.e., the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO). The regressed TRMM rainfall (3B42) anomalies during the TRMM period (1998–2006) manifest similar propagating features as for the regressed OLR anomalies during 1979–2006. These coherent features hence tend to suggest that the regional intraseasonal convective signals might be mostly a regional response to, or closely associated with the MJO, and probably contribute to the MJO’s global propagation. Atmospheric and surface intraseasonal variability during March–June of 1998–2006 are further examined using the high-quality TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) sea surface temperature (SST), columnar water vapor, and cloud liquid water, and the QuikSCAT oceanic winds (2000–2006). Enhanced (suppressed) convection or positive (negative) rainfall anomalies approximately cover the entire basin (0°–10°N, 30°W–10°E) during the passage of intraseasonal convective signals, accompanied by anomalous surface westerly (easterly) flow. Furthermore, a unique propagating feature seems to exist within the tropical Atlantic basin. Rainfall anomalies always appear first in the northwestern basin right off the coast of South America, and gradually extend eastward to cover the entire basin. A dipolar structure of rainfall anomalies with cross-equatorial surface wind anomalies can thus be observed during this evolution, similar to the anomaly patterns on the interannual time scale discovered in past studies. Coherent intraseasonal variations and patterns can also be found in other physical components.

北非地区海-陆热力差异与夏季江淮流域旱涝的关系

基于NCEP/NCAR月均再分析资料和中国743站降水资料,根据夏季江淮流域51 a(1954-2004年)区域旱涝指数的年代际变化特征,确定北非地区作为研究的关键区.分析发现,关键区的地表温度异常在冬季具有较好的持续性,冬季北大西洋涛动是导致这种异常持续性的重要原因之一.通过对前冬北非地区地表温度和夏季江淮流域降水的SVD分析发现:当北非大陆地区偏冷,其西北侧的海区偏暖时,江淮流域夏季的降水将整体偏多;反之,江淮流域夏季的降水整体偏少.进一步研究发现,北非地区海陆地表温度异常的对比,要比其中单一海洋或陆地区域的异常对夏季江淮流域的旱涝有更好的指示能力.文中定义了一个海陆热力差异指数来表征这种地表温度异常的对比程度,该指数和夏季江淮流域旱涝指数呈较好的正相关关系,并且对夏季江淮流域极端旱涝年份也有较好的指示,认为该指数可以作为一个指示江淮流域整体旱涝事件的预报因子.     

Dealing with drought: The challenge of using water system technologies to break dryland poverty traps

We explore strategies among farmers in semi-arid Tanzania to cope with drought, and investigate if access to a local supplemental irrigation system (the Ndiva system) can improve coping capacity. Results show high dependency on local ecosystem services when harvests fail, and indicate that farmers commonly exhaust asset holdings during droughts. Ndiva access did not have any direct effects on coping capacity, but seemed to have some indirect effects. Drawing on our findings we discuss the complexity of escaping persistent dryland poverty, and outline the circumstances under which small-scale water system technologies, such as Ndiva irrigation, may help.     

The Late Miocene climate response to a modern Sahara desert

The climate cooling and vegetation changes in the Miocene/Pliocene are generally well documented by various proxy data. Some important ecosystem changes occurred at that time. Palaeobotanical evidence suggests that the Sahara desert first appeared in the Pliocene, whereas in the Miocene North Africa was green. In the present study, we investigate the Late Miocene climate response to the appearance of the Sahara desert from a climate modelling sensitivity experiment. We compare a model experiment, which includes a full set of Late Miocene boundary conditions, with another one using the same boundary conditions except that the North African vegetation refers to the present-day situation. Our sensitivity study demonstrates that the introduction of the Sahara desert leads to a cooling and an aridification in Africa. In addition, we observe teleconnection patterns related to the North African desertification at around the Miocene/Pliocene boundary. From our sensitivity experiment, we observe that the Sahara contributes to a cooling in Central Asia and in North America. As compared to hypsodonty data for Central Asia, an increased aridity is underestimated in the Sahara experiment. Finally, we observe that the introduction of the Sahara leads to a cooling in the northern high latitudes. Hence, our sensitivity experiment indicates that the appearance of the Sahara desert is one piece to better understand Late Cenozoic climate cooling being most pronounced in the high latitudes.     

The co-production of land use and livelihoods change: Implications for development interventions

In a previous paper [McCusker, B., Carr, E.R., 2006. The co-production of livelihoods and land use change: Case studies from South Africa and Ghana. Geoforum 37 (5), 790–804], we argued that land use and livelihoods could best be understood as co-produced, where land use and livelihoods are not separate objects of knowledge related to one another through abstract processes, but different manifestations of social processes through which individuals and groups come to understand the challenges facing their everyday lives, the various resources available to them to negotiate these challenges, and the strategies by which they can conduct that negotiation. In this paper, we examine the theoretical basis for “co-production” with the goal of using this approach to inform development interventions.     

Are livestock a troublesome commodity?

Rather than making a uniform case for understanding the neoliberalization of ranching and pastoralism, the articles in this volume show how everyday practices are made through historically and geographically specific struggles over the characteristics of production, exchange and rule, in which livestock play a particularly important role. Collectively, I believe the articles in this volume highlight the significant relationship between cattle and capitalism, and make a compelling argument that to understand the material implications of neoliberalism we need to pay more attention to livestock as an important and rapidly changing medium of livelihood production and accumulation strategy around the world.     

A late Holocene paleoclimatic history of Lake Tanganyika, East Africa

A nearshore core (LT03-05) from the north basin of Lake Tanganyika provides diatom, pollen, and sedimentary time series covering the last ca. 3800 yr at 15-36 yr resolution. A chronology supported by 21 AMS dates on terrestrial and lacustrine materials allows us to account for ancient carbon effects on ¹⁴C ages and to propose refinements of the region's climatic history. Conditions drier than those of today were followed after ca. 3.30 ka by an overall wetting trend. Several century-scale climate variations were superimposed upon that trend, with exceptionally rainy conditions occurring 1.70-1.40 ka, 1.15-0.90 ka, 0.70-0.55 ka, and 0.35-0.20 ka. Around 0.55-0.35 ka, during the Spörer sunspot minimum, drier conditions developed in the northern Tanganyika basin while more humid conditions were registered at Lakes Victoria and Naivasha. This indicates significant variability in the nature and distribution of near-equatorial rainfall anomalies during much of the Little Ice Age.