The Greening of the Sahara: Past Changes and Future Implications

Pausata, Francesco S. R.Univ Quebec Montreal, Ctr ESCER Etud & Simulat Climat Echelle Reg, Dept Earth & Atmospher Sci, Montreal, PQ, Canada.;Univ Quebec Montreal, GEOTOP Res Ctr Dynam Earth Syst, Dept Earth & Atmospher Sci, Montreal, PQ, Canada. (author)

The Greening of the Sahara : Past Changes and Future Implications

In the future, the Sahara and Sahelian regions could experience more rainfall than today as a result of climate change. Wetter periods, termed African humid periods, occurred in the past and witnessed a mesic landscape in place of today's hyperarid and semiarid environment. Such large past changes raise the question of whether the near future might hold in store similar environmental transformations, particularly in view of the growing human-induced climate, land-use, and land-cover changes. In the last decades, geoengineering initiatives (in the form of active re-greening projects of the Sahara and Sahel) have been proposed and could have significant effects on the climate of the region. Here, we synthesize the literature on past and projected changes in the hydroclimate of the Sahelian-Saharan region and the associated feedbacks. We further address the current state of knowledge concerning Saharan and Sahelian afforestation projects and their consequences. Our review underscores the importance of vegetation in land-atmosphere-ocean feedback processes and the far-field impacts of northern African ecosystem changes.

Gaetani, MarcoIst Univ Superiori, Pavia, Italy. (author)
Messori, GabrieleUppsala universitet,Luft-, vatten- och landskapslära,Uppsala Univ, Dept Earth Sci, Uppsala, Sweden.;Stockholm Univ, Dept Meteorol, Stockholm, Sweden.;Stockholm Univ, Bolin Ctr Climate Res, Stockholm, Sweden.(Swepub:uu)gabme925 (author)
Berg, AlexisHarvard Univ, Dept Earth & Planetary Sci, 20 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA. (author)
de Souza, Danielle MaiaUniv Quebec Montreal, Dept Strategy & Social & Environm Responsibil, Montreal, PQ, Canada. (author)
Sage, Rowan F.Univ Toronto, Dept Ecol & Evolutionary Biol, Toronto, ON, Canada. (author)
DeMenocal, Peter B.Columbia Univ, Lamont Doherty Earth Observ, Palisades, NY USA. (author)
Univ Quebec Montreal, Ctr ESCER Etud & Simulat Climat Echelle Reg, Dept Earth & Atmospher Sci, Montreal, PQ, Canada.;Univ Quebec Montreal, GEOTOP Res Ctr Dynam Earth Syst, Dept Earth & Atmospher Sci, Montreal, PQ, Canada.Ist Univ Superiori, Pavia, Italy. (creator_code:org_t)

By the author/editor: Pausata, Frances ...; Gaetani, Marco; Messori, Gabriel ...; Berg, Alexis; de Souza, Daniel ...; Sage, Rowan F.; show more...; DeMenocal, Peter ...; show less...

About the subject

NATURAL SCIENCES: NATURAL SCIENCES; and Earth and Relate ...; and Climate Research

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