MSc thesis submitted by Moses Duguru

MSc thesis submitted by Moses Duguru

January 5, 2016

MSc_Moses_Duguru_Global_Change_Ecology_orgMoses Duguru, MSc student at the Global Change Ecology study program just handed in his thesis. He worked on climate patterns in West-Central Africa. Global climate has been warming rapidly since the beginning of the 20th century due to the emission of green house gases, inevitably altering the character of local and regional climate systems in the world, particularly the western parts of Africa. The main objective of this study is to analyse trends in 5 precipitation indices, based on daily data from 31 meteorological data stations. The 31 stations from which data was analysed in this study were from Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Central African Republic and Congo for the time range of 1950-1980. RClimdex software was used to process the magnitude of precipitation while the trend was determined using Mann-Kendalls test at (90%) p < 0.1 significance level. 93% of stations studied showed negative(decreasing) rainfall trends for precipitation total (PRCPTOT), 95th percentile(R95P) and 99th percentile (R99P) rainfall showed 67% and 61.29% of stations with negative trends of precipitation respectively, consecutive dry days(CDD) was positive (increasing) in 61.29% of stations while consecutive wet days (CWD) was negative (decreasing) in 67.74% of the 31 stations. This study shows that the magnitudes of the precipitation was predominantly negative(decreasing) rainfall trends from 1950-1980 in most of the stations, thereby indicating an evidence of coupling effects of a warmer climate and regional precipitation. These precipitation negative trends and magnitude has various effects on society and ecosystems within the scope of climate change in Western Africa.

follow us and share it on:

you may also like:

Johannes Mast wins Bernd Rendel Prize

Johannes Mast wins Bernd Rendel Prize

Johannes Mast is awarded the 2026 Bernd Rendel Prize for Geosciences by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for outstanding research as part of his dissertation. Johannes’s highly interdisciplinary work bridges the Geosciences, Linguistics, Data Science, and...

Two days of celebration, and a hundred hands behind it

Two days of celebration, and a hundred hands behind it

We've written plenty about the EORC 25th and EAGLE 10th anniversary already, the timeline, the talks, the EAGLE panel discussion, the exhibition. But there's a story we haven't told yet, and it's honestly the one that matters at least as much. Because none of it just...

Small Gesture, Big Thanks: Chocolate in the Polar Bear Kitchen

Small Gesture, Big Thanks: Chocolate in the Polar Bear Kitchen

Pulling off a party for 250 people doesn't happen by magic. It happens because a bunch of people quietly say yes to the boring jobs, the carrying, the setting up, the standing around answering questions, the cleaning up afterward. Our combined 25th anniversary for...

From the lecture hall into the forest

From the lecture hall into the forest

A recent visit to the University Forest Sailershausen brought students together with Forest Management to discuss current challenges in forestry under a changing climate. Hosted by the head of the forest administration Daniel Kraus, the day combined presentations by...

Share This