Over the past 112 years the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem has experienced major changes in its weather.
The Mara- Serengeti ecosystem, which includes Kenya’s Maasai Mara and Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, is one of the most famous and wildlife-rich areas in Africa.
I’m part of a team from the universities of Hohenheim and Groningen, Free University of Berlin, the IUCN, the Indian Institute of Management in Udaipur and the Kenya Meteorological Department which has been studying weather patterns in the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem since 1913. Our new study has found that it has been experiencing major changes.
Rainfall in both the Maasai Mara and Serengeti increased over time. Severe droughts are becoming more frequent and intense. And though extreme floods are relatively rare, they’re also increasing in frequency and intensity over time. The Southern Oscillation Index measures the difference in air pressure between two places, Tahiti in the South Pacific and Darwin in Australia. When the sea level pressure difference is big it signals changes – like El Niño or La Niña – which can affect weather patterns around the world. El Niño is linked to more rainfall in east Africa and La Niña to droughts.
Our study of the Southern Oscillation Index found that around 1970 the shifts in oceanic and atmospheric conditions that cause El Niño and La Niña were becoming more extreme. As a result, these events – and the droughts and floods they bring – are happening more often and with greater intensity. We’ve seen this through field observations in annual reports by Kenya’s Game Department and its successor, the Wildlife Conservation and Management Department, and from local district documents in the Kenya National Archives and there are also more contemporary observations.
Climate Change Great Migration Hyena Indian Ocean Dipole Lion Livestock Maasai Maasai Mara Pastoralist Serengeti Tourism Wildebeest Wildlife
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