tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/semi-arid-regions-26263/articlessemi arid regions – The Conversation2019-08-23T03:15:22Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1207532019-08-23T03:15:22Z2019-08-23T03:15:22ZCatastrophic Queensland floods killed 600,000 cattle and devastated native species<p>In February, about <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/agricultural-commodities/jun-2019/beef">600,000 cattle were killed</a> by catastrophic flooding across north Queensland’s Carpentaria Gulf plains. </p>
<p>The flood waters rose suddenly, forming a wall of water up to 70km wide. Record depths were reached along 500km of the Flinders River, submerging 25,000 square kilometres of country. Cattle were stranded. Many drowned. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/queenslands-floods-are-so-huge-the-only-way-to-track-them-is-from-space-111083">Queensland's floods are so huge the only way to track them is from space</a>
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<p>Even though cattleman Harry Batt lost 70% of his herd, he was <a href="https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/5906068/queensland-floods-decimate-native-wildlife/?cs=10229">more concerned about the wildlife</a>. He said, “all the kangaroos, and bloody little marsupial mice and birds, they couldn’t handle it”.</p>
<p>Harry was right to be concerned. As our research, published today in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aec.12803">Austral Ecology</a>, reveals, floods sweeping Australia’s plains have disrupted native species for millions of years. Now, as climate change drives <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-016-1689-y">more intense flooding</a>, we will see this effect intensify. </p>
<h2>Flooding causes major disruptions to gene flow</h2>
<p>February’s flood came ten years to the day after a <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/flood/fld_reports/gulf_floods_jan_mar_2009.pdf">far bigger flood</a> on the adjoining river systems that submerged an area larger than Ireland. It was this flood that first drew our attention to the plight of native species. </p>
<p>Noel was asked by <a href="https://mynortherngulf.org/">Northern Gulf Resource Management Group</a> to survey wildlife in areas affected by the 2009 flood. Over the following four years, he found almost no ground-dwelling reptiles, despite them occurring elsewhere in the region. They appeared to have been washed away or drowned. </p>
<p>Biologists have long known that many species’ ranges are interrupted by the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1071/MU9870158">Gulf Plains</a>. Hence, these floodplains are considered one of Australia’s most important biogeographic barriers: the Carpentarian Gap. </p>
<p>Many closely related species with a common ancestor are separated by this Gap, including the Golden-shouldered Parrot of Cape York Peninsula and the Hooded Parrot of the Northern Territory. They are thought to have separated around <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1463-6409.2012.00561.x">7 million years ago</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-east-queensland-is-droughtier-and-floodier-than-we-thought-97860">South-East Queensland is droughtier and floodier than we thought</a>
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<p>The Gap also separates many other species, including birds, mammals, reptiles and butterflies, at the subspecies or genetic level. Even more species found on either side are just absent from the Gulf Plains. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285075/original/file-20190722-134095-gtpfir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285075/original/file-20190722-134095-gtpfir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285075/original/file-20190722-134095-gtpfir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285075/original/file-20190722-134095-gtpfir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285075/original/file-20190722-134095-gtpfir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285075/original/file-20190722-134095-gtpfir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285075/original/file-20190722-134095-gtpfir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285075/original/file-20190722-134095-gtpfir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Huge flooding across the Gulf Plains, including the Norman and Flinders Rivers, in February 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov%20under%20Info/About">NASA Worldview</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<h2>Flood impacts are immense and under-appreciated</h2>
<p>When biologists first tried to find a reason for these patterns, they only considered aridity. They proposed <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1071/MU9870158">Australia’s arid zone expanded</a> to the Gulf of Carpentaria during ice ages.</p>
<p>There is no evidence for this, but the misunderstanding is completely understandable. </p>
<p>Any dry-season visitor to the Gulf Plains will find a dry, inhospitable environment with few trees or shrubs for shade, cracked clay soils, and lots of flies. European explorers described the region as “God-forsaken”. </p>
<p>But it can be quite a different place in the wet season. </p>
<p>Rains in the Gulf are caused by the summer monsoonal troughs or cyclones. About once a decade, these generate massive downpours. <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/flood/fld_history/index.shtml">Historical records</a> show at least 14 major floods since 1870. </p>
<p>So, to us, it seemed <em>floods</em> rather than aridity could be the cause of the odd distributions of plants and animals. </p>
<p>We set out to see whether Noel’s findings could have been caused by flooding or whether other factors such as soil, vegetation or climate were more important. </p>
<p>We also wanted to know what other effects floods might have on the region’s ecosystem. Could floods, by eliminating trees and shrubs, be responsible for the hostile appearance of the region? Could ground-dwelling reptiles and birds be underrepresented, not just at Noel’s sites, but on floodplains across the area? </p>
<p>To find out, we divided the area into floodplains and higher-altitude land, and generated 10,000 random sites across the Gulf Plains. We extracted soil, vegetation and rainfall data from national information sources, and examined the patterns.</p>
<p>We found trees and shrubs were significantly less common on floodplains than on land above the flood zone, regardless of soil or rainfall, and tree cover was further reduced on cracking clays. We concluded the plain’s open, hostile appearance is caused by a combination of soils and flooding. </p>
<p>We then examined all gecko, skink and bird records from the <a href="https://www.ala.org.au/">Atlas of Living Australia</a>. </p>
<p>We found ground-living reptiles and birds were much less common on the floodplains, regardless of vegetation or soil. As expected, reptiles were more sensitive to flooding than birds, which can fly to safety during floods. </p>
<p>Finally, we found the sites affected by the 2009 flood had significantly fewer geckos and skinks than other sites across the Gulf Plains. </p>
<h2>Increased flooding from climate change could have major consequences</h2>
<p>Our findings have evolutionary significance that extends into the future. Repeated disruption of species across their distributions affects gene flow and ultimately produces new species. If <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-016-1689-y">floods become more frequent</a>, as expected under climate change, so might the rates at which new species form. </p>
<p>They also have serious land management implications. Climate change planning emphasises conserving river corridors as safe refuges from arid conditions. However, periodic scouring of many of the nation’s floodplains – expected to increase under climate change – means that this approach needs rethinking. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/townsville-floods-show-cities-that-dont-adapt-to-risks-face-disaster-112607">Townsville floods show cities that don't adapt to risks face disaster</a>
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<p>We conclude that on the most arid occupied continent on Earth, unpredictable floods may cause the most disruption to the Australian plant and animal life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120753/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noel D Preece received funding from Northern Gulf Resource Management Group. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Crowley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Six months after huge floods swept Queensland we can start to appreciate the huge effect they had on native species.Gabriel Crowley, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, James Cook UniversityNoel D. Preece, Adjunct Asssociate Professor, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/786272017-06-18T09:22:46Z2017-06-18T09:22:46ZAfrica’s got plans for a Great Green Wall: why the idea needs a rethink<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173386/original/file-20170612-10220-1jrelzo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">By the end of the 1990s, the idea of encroaching deserts had become difficult to defend.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">IFRC/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Africa’s Great Green Wall, or more formally <a href="http://www.greatgreenwallinitiative.org/">The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative</a>, is the intriguing but misleading name of an enormously ambitious and worthwhile initiative to improve life and resilience in the drylands that surround the Sahara. </p>
<p>The idea of a Great Green Wall has come a long way since its inception. Its origin goes back to colonial times. In 1927, the French colonial forester Louis Lavauden <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-16014-1_8">coined the word desertification</a> to suggest that deserts are spreading due to deforestation, overgrazing and arid land degradation. In 1952 the English forester Richard St. Barbe Baker suggested that a <a href="https://wilmetteinstitute.org/the-man-of-the-trees-and-the-great-green-wall-a-bahais-environmental-legacy-for-the-ages/">“green front”</a> in the form of a 50km wide barrier of trees be erected to contain the spreading desert.</p>
<p>Droughts in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel from the 1970s onwards gave wings to the idea, and in 2007 the African Union approved the Great Green Wall Initiative. Many perceived it as a plan to build an almost 8,000km long, 15km wide, wall of trees across the African continent – from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east. </p>
<p>This plan faced a great deal of criticism. It led to a clearer vision being endorsed under the same name five years later when the African Ministerial Conference on Environment adopted a <a href="http://www.greatgreenwallinitiative.org/sites/default/files/publications/harmonized_strategy_GGWSSI-EN_.pdf">harmonised regional strategy</a>.</p>
<p>Can the vision ever come to fruition? </p>
<p>Only if there’s a ten-fold (at least) increase in pace so that the progress on the ground becomes consistent with lofty political ambitions. Sadly, the wall suffers from a major mismatch between ambition and effort. But that’s not to say it should be ditched. </p>
<h2>Why did the vision change?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.csf-desertification.eu/combating-desertification/item/the-african-great-green-wall-project">Critics argue</a> that a desert is a healthy, natural ecosystem that shouldn’t be thought of as a disease. Nor, they argue, is it spreading like a disease. In fact, by the end of the 1990s, the idea of encroaching deserts had become <a href="https://www.iied.org/end-desertification">difficult to defend</a> against scientific evidence that climate variability was to blame. </p>
<p>Critics <a href="http://www.csf-desertification.eu/combating-desertification/item/the-african-great-green-wall-project">have also pointed out</a> that the vision of a barrier is counter-productive to the development objective as it draws attention to the perimeter of the land rather than to the land itself. To boost food security and support local communities it is better to focus on the wide field rather than its narrow edge. The development objective is important – an <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/11/great-green-wall-initiative-offers-unique-opportunity-to-combat-climate-change-in-africa-un-agency/">estimated 232 million</a> people live in the general area of the Great Green Wall. </p>
<p>This led to the clarified vision keeping the wall in name, but it has been bent almost beyond recognition.</p>
<p>The wall is no longer seen as a narrow band of trees along the southern edge of the Sahara. The vision is now to surround the Sahara with a wide belt of vegetation – trees and bushes greening and protecting an agricultural landscape. The new vision engages all the countries surrounding it, including Algeria and others in North Africa, not just the 11 original sub-Saharan countries of the Sahel.</p>
<p>Thus, the Great Green Wall is no longer a wall. Nor is it great – not yet anyway.</p>
<h2>Unrealistic ambitions</h2>
<p>A simple analysis gives a clear indication of how difficult it will be to realise the Great Green Wall within agreed timelines. </p>
<p>A recent <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/11/great-green-wall-initiative-offers-unique-opportunity-to-combat-climate-change-in-africa-un-agency/">analysis</a> by the Food and Agriculture Organisation suggests that 128 million hectares have a tree cover below the “better half” of comparable landscapes in the two aridity zones that straddle the 400 mm rainfall line around the Sahara. </p>
<p>If one assumes that half of this (65 million hectares, or 8% of the total area in these aridity zones) needs intervention, and that the United Nations’ <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/">2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development</a> sets the target date for completion, then the Great Green Wall initiative should be treating an average of 5 million hectares per year (10 million hectares is the ambition to bring all lands up to the level of the better half). A less ambitious target date would be set by the African Union’s <a href="http://www.au.int/web/en/agenda2063">Agenda 2063</a> but even then an average treatment of 2 million hectares per year would be needed. </p>
<p>The actual intervention area is not known but is likely to be far less, no more than 200,000 hectares per year and probably less. At this pace, a century is an optimistic prediction of the time it will take to complete the Wall.</p>
<p>A massive increase in speed –- at least ten-fold –- is required if the Wall is to become great in our lifetime. More resources will clearly be needed but a ten-fold increase is unlikely. What to do?</p>
<h2>Re-greening options</h2>
<p>Many people assume that the wall can only be built only by planting trees. But tree planting is not always needed. Some of the less dry lands can be treated by techniques that rely on the capacity of the land to regreen itself – its ecological memory. </p>
<p>Floods and animals move seeds to places where they can sprout and root systems of former trees are sometimes capable of producing new shoots. Sprouting roots could live as the roots are already established – unlike newly planted seedlings. These could rapidly re-green a landscape, reducing the need for tree planting, as long as farmers protect them from fire and cattle. </p>
<p>This technique – known as farmer-managed natural regeneration – has proven to produce <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/btp.12390/full">good results at low cost</a> in areas where the ecological memory is sufficient for sprouts to come up by themselves and where farmers have the right to use the trees once they get big. The potential to <a href="https://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/scaling-regreening-six-steps-success.pdf">scale it up</a> is significant.</p>
<p>But farmer-managed natural regeneration will not work everywhere. Other methods are needed too, such as digging half-moons (to capture water) and planting seedlings. Doing a better job of applying the right method to the right place may be the quickest and most feasible way to speed the making of the Great Green Wall.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78627/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lars Laestadius is affiliated as a consultant with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation. </span></em></p>Africa’s great green wall suffers from a major mismatch between ambition and effort. But that’s not to say it should be ditched altogether.Lars Laestadius, Adjunct Lecturer, Swedish University of Agricultural SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/569362016-04-12T03:26:35Z2016-04-12T03:26:35ZLessons from semi-arid regions on how to adapt to climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118006/original/image-20160408-23668-1gynb6z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In semi-arid areas, climate information that is tailored to farmers’ needs can reduce their vulnerability to climate change.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lucia Scodanibbio</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rising temperatures and more extreme, unpredictable climate events are making sustainable livelihoods tough for many people living in semi-arid regions of the world. To adapt, local communities, and especially farmers, use different strategies and responses.</p>
<p>Research in India and Africa shows that achieving sustained and equitable adaptation requires a number of things. It is critical to include a range of stakeholders to think about the problem together. It’s also important to have access to usable climate information that is considered alongside socioeconomic and governance issues. Finally, we must look at both the past and imagine possible different futures that reduce inequality and climate impacts. </p>
<h2>How farmers are adapting</h2>
<p>In <a href="http://www.assar.uct.ac.za/node/303183">northern Ghana</a> farmers are increasingly suffering from delays in the onset of the annual rains. In an attempt to adapt, they are experimenting with different types of crop and water-storage systems. </p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.assar.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/138/Info_briefs/Tamil%20Nadu%20RDS%20Information%20Brief%20-%20March%202016.pdf">Moyar Bhavani basin</a> in India’s southernmost state of Tamil Nadu, unpredictable weather patterns mean that traditional rain calendars, used to decide sowing and harvesting times, are no longer accurate. And as water scarcity becomes a growing problem, farmers are turning to irrigation crops. These require expensive inputs and can push marginalised groups further into poverty and debt. </p>
<p>Water and pasture shortages in Kenya’s semi-arid regions, exacerbated by droughts, have driven pastoralist women into new types of livelihoods. These include petty trade in a number of products like milk, vegetables and beans, as well as small-scale agriculture. Men, on the other hand, pushed by conflicts with other groups over the use of land, often end up pursuing semi-legal activities such as the drugs or arms trades, according to our unpublished research. </p>
<h2>Adapting to climate change</h2>
<p>There are many ways of preparing for, and adapting to, changing climates. We suggest three important components:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Building on local knowledge of climate vulnerability and responses: To start with, it helps to look at why farmers and pastoralists are vulnerable to climate impacts and what they are doing in response. Communities, households and individuals have a wealth of knowledge that can be shared about the practices and ways in which they respond. Adaptation initiatives that build on local knowledge and integrate scientific findings have a higher chance of leading to sustained and effective adaptation. </p></li>
<li><p>Including climate information: Climate information that is tailored to users’ needs can help vulnerable farmers make better decisions. But this needs to be transparent, high quality and context specific, and must deal with current and expected climate trends and their impact. This kind of information is also needed by people who work with these vulnerable groups, such as extension officers, local and national governments, and NGO practitioners. </p></li>
<li><p>Collaborative learning and decision-making: If planning and decisions allow for mutual learning between scientists, decision-makers and local communities, all groups gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the limits and uncertainties about climate information, and of the types of adaptation responses that might succeed. Co-production of knowledge also supports the use of climate information in the local context and cooperative development of possible solutions. </p></li>
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<span class="caption">Involving people in research may help them feel empowered and more willing to combat climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lucia Scodanibbio</span></span>
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<p>This approach would prompt the following types of questions to be asked: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>What makes different groups of people vulnerable, not only to climate risks but to other socioeconomic factors? How serious are the risks and when will they occur? Are there hidden opportunities?</p></li>
<li><p>Will it be hotter or colder, wetter or drier? Will there be more extreme events? Will these changes further exacerbate the risks and vulnerabilities identified above?</p></li>
<li><p>What responses could be developed? Which are the most urgent, given the medium and high risks? For which groups of people? Are the proposed options robust in the face of uncertainty? Are they politically and socially acceptable, and/or financially feasible?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This approach has three advantages. It ensures users are engaged in assessing vulnerability and risk. It improves the understanding of where and how historical and future climate information plays a part. And it contributes to the understanding of how climate information feeds into adaptation options. </p>
<h2>Engagement with farmers</h2>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.assar.uct.ac.za/">Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions</a> project, participatory <a href="http://www.assar.uct.ac.za/VRA%20workshop">assessments</a> have been carried out to identify the main hazards and issues affecting semi-arid communities. In these multi-stakeholder exercises, possible response strategies have been explored, from the local and regional level. In the process, <a href="http://www.assar.uct.ac.za/news/reflections-multi-stakeholder-workshop-botswana">people have felt empowered</a> and able to play a role in adaptation. </p>
<p>In parallel, researchers are conducting analyses of climate trends and <a href="http://www.assar.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/138/Info_briefs/ASSAR%20info%20brief%201%20-%20Planning%20for%20climate%20change%20in%20the%20semi-arid%20areas%20of%20Southern%20Africa.pdf">future projections</a> across a number of areas in Africa and India. They are also increasing their understanding of the governance factors that enable or curtail adaptation actions, and their impact on different social groups. </p>
<p>In the second phase of the project, these and other findings will be used to develop scenarios of possible futures. In these, adaptation will take a range of different forms, from incremental to transformative. As part of this process, participants will develop possible adaptation strategies and responses, and will hopefully feel empowered to act.</p>
<p>The aim is to develop adaptation that is more equitable, widespread and sustained. This will be crucial to help mitigate the possibility of <a href="https://ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/images/uploads/WGIIAR5-Glossary_FGD.pdf">maladaptation</a> and ensure that people’s vulnerability to climate change is decreased.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56936/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gina Ziervogel receives funding from National Research Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>ASSAR is one of four research programmes funded under the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA), with financial support from the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DfID) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. The views expressed in this work are those of the creators and do not necessarily represent those of DfID and IDRC or its Board of Governors.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Kloppers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Building on local experience and having access to current and expected climate trends is crucial to adapting to climate change for farmers in semi-arid regions.Gina Ziervogel, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental and Geographical Science and African Climate and Development Initiative Research Chair, University of Cape TownKate Kloppers, Senior Science Engagement Officer, University of Cape TownLucia Scodanibbio, Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions – Project Manager, African Climate and Development Initiative, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.