Possible effects of global climate change on the ecosystem of Lake Tanganyika

Climate change; Ecological and hydrodynamic model; Lake Tanganyika; Sensitivity analysis; air temperature; biogeochemical cycle; biomass; climate change; ecological modeling; freshwater ecosystem; greenhouse gas; hydrodynamics; nutrient cycling; oxygen; precipitation intensity; solar radiation; surface layer; temperature effect; water temperature; wind velocity; East African Lakes

Abstract :

[en] Any change in the air temperature, wind speed, precipitation, and incoming solar radiation induced by increasing greenhouse gasses and climate change will directly influence lakes and other water bodies. The influence can cause changes in the physical (water temperature, stratification, transparency), chemical (nutrient loading, oxygen) and biological (structure and functioning of the ecosystem) components of the Lake. In this work an influence of the likely effects of the climate change on the above three components of Lake Tanganyika are studied by means of a simple ecological model. Simulations for the years 2002-2009 have been performed using the wind and solar radiation data from the National Centres for Environmental Protection (NCEP) reanalysis. Various possible climatic scenarios are studied by changing the surface layer depth, its temperature and the wind stress. Any change in any of the above physical forcing parameters modifies the timing and intensity of the dry season peaks of the biogeochemical parameters. It is seen that the gross production increases as temperature of the surface layer increases and its depth decreases. High temperature and low wind stress, reduces the biomass. The effects of a slight increase in lake water temperature on the Lake Tanganyika ecosystem might be mitigated by increased windiness, if the latter was sufficient to induce greater mixing. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Disciplines :

Aquatic sciences & oceanology

Author, co-author :

Naithani, J.; Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering (iMMC), Avenue Georges Lemaître 4, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, G. Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research (TECLIM), Université catholique de Louvain, Chemin du Cyclotron 2, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Plisnier, Pierre-Denis ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophysique, géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Chemical Oceanography Unit (COU) ; Royal Museum for Central Africa, Leuvensesteenweg, 13, 3080 Tervuren, Belgium

Deleersnijder, Eric ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département ArGEnCo > Hydraulics in Environmental and Civil Engineering ; Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering (iMMC), Avenue Georges Lemaître 4, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, Earth and Life Institute (ELI), G. Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research (TECLIM), Université catholique de Louvain, Chemin du Cyclotron 2, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Language :

English

Title :

Possible effects of global climate change on the ecosystem of Lake Tanganyika

Publication date :

2011

Journal title :

Hydrobiologia

ISSN :

0018-8158

eISSN :

1573-5117

Publisher :

Springer, Dordrecht, Nl

Volume :

671

Issue :

Pages :

147 - 163

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Funding text :

Acknowledgments This work is based on the previous research projects funded by the Belgian Science Policy: ‘Climate Variability as Recorded by Lake Tanganyika’, CLIMLAKE, and ‘Climate change impact on the sustainable use of Lake Tanganyika fisheries’: CLIMFISH (STEREO) with the help of the Belgian Cooperation (DGCD) within the framework agreement with the Royal Museum for Central Africa (MRAC), Tervuren, Belgium. Part of this work was achieved in the framework of the CHOLTIC project, funded by the Belgian Science Policy office (BELSPO) under contract SD/AR/04a. Thanks are due to Prof. Yves Cornet of the University of Liege, Liege, Belgium. Eric Deleersnijder is a Research Associate with the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS).

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