Climate & Agriculture 6: Global agricultural benefits of keeping warming below 1.5 degrees (IPCC)

Yes, while the human population keeps growing, climate change is likely to cause various detrimental effects on global agriculture and thereby food security. Like other climate change impacts these effects will increase with the magnitude of the warming, and most … Continue reading

Climate & Agriculture 2: African net agricultural productivity to decline for 5 major food staples

The impact of 21st century climate change on African agriculture deserves special attention, considering rapid population growth and the fact that the continent is currently already a net importer of agricultural products, while several sub-Saharan countries still depend for a … Continue reading

Climate & Agriculture 1: African food imports increase, while agricultural dependence stays high

Yes, we have many simultaneous climate series running here at Bits of Science. For instance one about the global temperature trend, another about sea level rise – and of course our series about climate change as a driver to the … Continue reading

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 38: European migratory birds offer early climate warning

Migratory birds may seem to be well equipped to cope with the consequences of climate change, because their trait of seasonal migration is of course already an evolutionary adaptation to temperature fluctuations that characterise the seasons of Earth’s temperate climate … Continue reading

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 34: ‘Sahel greening’ unlikely to benefit African biodiversity

The below graph comes from a new global temperature trend study that compares different established datasets for land and ocean temperature. The results emphasize an often-overlooked phenomenon: geographically ‘skewed warming’ – leading to planet-wide precipitation shifts. Possible effects not only … Continue reading

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 29: Last straw Madagascar bamboo lemur drying out

When you’re looking at the effects of climate change on the forests of Africa, you may be inclined to overlook Madagascar, the continent’s largest island. But especially when biodiversity is your concern, it deserves special attention. In fact Madagascar has … Continue reading

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 28: If the Amazon goes, so may Africa’s rainforests

The Congolese rainforests are the world’s second largest remaining tropical rainforest expanse and a 60 gigatonne carbon store. Although climate models have a hard time predicting rainfall changes over the Congo Basin and despite a multi-decade drying trend, these forests … Continue reading

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 27: Africa is warming fast, but what about Congo Basin?

21st century climate change affects the entire globe: every ecosystem, every mountain range, all the glaciers, all the land, the oceans. But of all continents it’s often said that Africa will face the biggest impacts. African climate change is far … Continue reading

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 25: Congo rainforest shows drying trend – and degradation

The climate over the Congolese rainforests (in the central tropics of Africa) seems to show a drying trend over the last four decades. And although this deviation is smaller than multi-annual variation, the average decline in precipitation does lead to … Continue reading