Decline of woody vegetation in a saline landscape in the Groundnut Basin, Senegal

Sambou, Antoine; Theilade, Ida; Fensholt, Rasmus; Ræbild, Anders

doi:10.1007/s10113-016-0929-z

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 58 publications

(66 reference statements)

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“…This is in line with findings from questionnaire-based surveys among elderly people in the Sahel (e.g. Rasmussen et al, 2001;Gonzales et al, 2004Gonzales et al, , 2012Ouedraogo et al, 2010;Brandt et al, 2014c;Sambou et al, 2016) documenting a clear increase in robust woody species at the expense of more mesic species. The survey periods cover at least 20 years up to more than 40 years.…”

Section: Contributions Of Other Authorssupporting

confidence: 91%

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Desertification, resilience, and re-greening in the African Sahel – a matter of the observation period?

Kusserow

2017

Earth Syst. Dynam.

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Abstract. Since the turn of the millennium various scientific publications have been discussing a re-greening of the Sahel after the 1980s drought mainly based on coarse-resolution satellite data. However, the author's own field studies suggest that the situation is far more complex and that both paradigms, the "encroaching Sahara" and the "re-greening Sahel", need to be questioned. This paper discusses the concepts of desertification, resilience, and re-greening by addressing four main aspects: (i) the relevance of edaphic factors for a vegetation re-greening, (ii-iii) the importance of the selected observation period in the debate on Sahel greening or browning, and (iv) modifications in the vegetation pattern as possible indicators of ecosystem changes (shift from originally diffuse to contracted vegetation patterns).The data referred to in this paper cover a time period of more than 150 years and include the author's own research results from the early 1980s until today. A special emphasis, apart from fieldwork data and remote sensing data, is laid on the historical documents.The key findings summarised at the end show the following: (i) vegetation recovery predominantly depends on soil types; (ii) when discussing Sahel greening vs. Sahel browning, the majority of research papers only focus on post-drought conditions. Taking pre-drought conditions (before the 1980s) into account, however, is essential to fully understand the situation. Botanical investigations and remote-sensing-based time series clearly show a substantial decline in woody species diversity and cover density compared to pre-drought conditions; iii) the self-organised patchiness of vegetation is considered to be an important indicator of ecosystem changes.

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Section: Contributions Of Other Authorssupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Rasmussen et al, 2001;Gonzales et al, 2004Gonzales et al, , 2012Ouedraogo et al, 2010;Brandt et al, 2014c;Sambou et al, 2016;Sect. 4.2);…”

Section: Contributions Of Other Authorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Desertification, resilience, and re-greening in the African Sahel – a matter of the observation period?

Kusserow

2017

Earth Syst. Dynam.

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Section: Contributions Of Other Authorssupporting

confidence: 91%

“…The contrast between a dryer western Sahel and a wetter eastern Sahel is becoming more significant (Lebel and Ali, 2009;Nicholson, 2013). Sanogo et al (2015) found a statistically significant positive rainfall trend between 1980 and 2010; however, it did not reach the degree of wetness of the 1950s.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

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Desertification, Resilience and Re-greening in the African Sahel – A matter of the observation period?

Kusserow¹

2017

Preprint

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Abstract. Since the turn of the millennium various publications have been discussinga re-greening of the Sahel after the 1980's drought mainly based on coarse-resolution satellite data. Recent field studies show a more differentiated picture questioning both paradigms, the Encroaching Sahara and the Re -greening Sahel. The author set out this article to discuss the concepts of Desertification, Resilience and Re-greening by addressing three main aspects: (i) relevance of edaphic factors for a vegetation re-greening, (ii) importance of the selected observation period in the debate of Sahel greening or browning, and (iii) modifications in vegetation pattern as possible indicators for ecosystem changes (shift from originally diffuse to contracted vegetation patterns). The data used in this article cover a period of more than 150 years and include the author's own research results from the early 1980s until today. A special emphasis, apart from field work and remote sensing, is laid on the analysis of historical documents. The key findings summarised at the end show the following: (i) a vegetation recovery predominantly depends on soil types; (ii) when discussing Sahel greening vs. browning, the majority of research articles only focuses on post-drought conditions. However, if pre-drought conditions (before 1980s) are analysed, remote sensing based time series and botanical investigations clearly show a substantial decline in diversity of woody species and cover density, compared to pre-drought conditions; (iii) self-organised patchiness of vegetation is considered to be an important indicator for ecosystem changes.

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Monitoring land use and soil salinity changes in coastal landscape: a case study from Senegal

Thiam

Villamor

Faye

et al. 2021

Environ Monit Assess

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Soil salinity is a major issue causing land degradation in coastal areas. In this study, we assessed the land use and soil salinity changes in Djilor district (Senegal) using remote sensing and field data. We performed land use land cover changes for the years 1984, 1994, 2007, and 2017. Electrical conductivity was measured from 300 soil samples collected at the study area; this, together with elevation, distance to river, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Salinity Index (SI), and Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), was used to build the salinity model using a multiple regression analysis. Supervised classification and intensity analysis were applied to determine the annual change area and the variation of gains and losses. The results showed that croplands recorded the highest gain (17%) throughout the period 1984–2017, while forest recorded 3%. The fastest annual area of change occurred during the period 1984–1994. The salinity model showed a high potential for mapping saline areas (R2 = 0.73 and RMSE = 0.68). Regarding salinity change, the slightly saline areas (2 < EC < 4 dS/m) increased by 42% whereas highly saline (EC > 8 dS/m) and moderately saline (4 < EC < 8 dS/m) areas decreased by 23% and 26%, respectively, in 2017. Additionally, the increasing salt content is less dominant in vegetated areas compared with non-vegetated areas. Nonetheless, the highly concentrated salty areas can be restored using salt-resistant plants (e.g., Eucalyptus sp., Tamarix sp.). This study gives more insights on land use planning and salinity management for improving farmers’ resilience in coastal regions.

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Decline of woody vegetation in a saline landscape in the Groundnut Basin, Senegal

Cited by 10 publications

References 58 publications

Desertification, resilience, and re-greening in the African Sahel – a matter of the observation period?

Desertification, resilience, and re-greening in the African Sahel – a matter of the observation period?

Desertification, Resilience and Re-greening in the African Sahel – A matter of the observation period?

Monitoring land use and soil salinity changes in coastal landscape: a case study from Senegal

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