24 research outputs found
A synthesis of past, current and future research for protection and management of papyrus (Cyperus papyrus L.) wetlands in Africa
Papyrus wetlands (dominated by the giant
sedge Cyperus papyrus L.) occur throughout eastern,
central and southern Africa and are important for
biodiversity, for water quality and quantity regulation
and for the livelihoods of millions of people. To draw
attention to the importance of papyrus wetlands, a
special session entitled ‘‘The ecology of livelihoods in
papyrus wetlands’’ was organized at the 9th INTECOL
Wetlands Conference in Orlando, Florida in June
2012. Papers from the session, combined with additional
contributions, were collected in a special issue
of Wetlands Ecology and Management. The current
paper reviews ecological and hydrological characteristics
of papyrus wetlands, summarizes their ecosystem
services and sustainable use, provides an
overview of papyrus research to date, and looks at
policy development for papyrus wetlands. Based on
this review, the paper provides a synthesis of research
and policy priorities for papyrus wetlands and introduces
the contributions in the special issue. Main
conclusions are that (1) there is a need for better
estimates of the area covered by papyrus wetlands.
Limited evidence suggests that the loss of papyrus
wetlands is rapid in some areas; (2) there is a need for a
better understanding and modelling of the regulating
services of papyrus wetlands to support trade-off
analysis and improve economic valuation; (3) research
on papyrus wetlands should include assessment of all
ecosystem services (provisioning, regulating, habitat,
cultural) so that trade-offs can be determined as the
basis for sustainable management strategies (‘wise
use’); (4) more research on the governance, institutional
and socio-economic aspects of papyrus wetlands
is needed to assist African governments in
dealing with the challenges of conserving wetlands in
the face of growing food security needs and climate
change. The papers in the special issue address a
number of these issues
The influence of wetlands, decaying organic matter, and stirring by wildlife on the dissolved oxygen concentration in eutrophicated water holes in the Seronera River, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
The dissolved oxygen concentration (DO) was sampled during a diurnal cycle in three water holes heavily used by wildlife and with distinctive biological features along the Seronera River. The DO fluctuated widely (by up to 11.5 mg l−1) as a function of time, mechanical stirring and aeration by animals, and the presence of fringing wetlands. The DO cycle was successfully modeled (within 0.3 mg l−1) by assuming that the four dominant processes were photosynthesis and respiration by algae near the surface, trapping by wetlands, decomposition of dead organic matter on the bottom, and stirring/aeration by hippos. The rate of DO decline from the decay of dead organic matter was equal to the rate of DO removal by algal respiration at night
Papyrus wetlands a lunar-modulated refuge for aquatic fauna
A field study was undertaken of the use of papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) wetlands fringing Rubondo Island, Lake Victoria, Tanzania, as a refuge from predators by freshwater shrimps (Caridina nilotica) and tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) larvae. During the full moon nights, fish larvae took refuge more than 5 m in the papyrus and did not venture out into the lake, while they ventured into fringing lake waters during moonless nights. The freshwater shrimps and lake flies (Chaoborus sp.) did not migrate with the moon. This fauna took refuge in the papyrus wetlands even though the dissolved oxygen concentration was as low as 0.4 ppm (<5% of saturation)
The Serengeti will die if Kenya dams the Mara River
[Extract] The Serengeti ecosystem hosts the annual wildlife migration of up to 2 million animals (mainly wildebeests, zebras and other species of the plains). It is a World Heritage site, important to the Tanzania tourism industry, and an ecosystem living laboratory. It comprises the Serengeti National Park, the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, and several Conservation, Game, and Wildlife Management areas. The Serengeti has one perennial river, the Mara, which is the only source of water for migrating wildlife in a drought year. The Mara River is formed by the confluence of the Amala and Nyangores Rivers, which drain the Mau forest in the Kenyan highlands; it is a transboundary river shared between Kenya upstream and Tanzania downstream
Ecohydrology-based planning as a solution to address an emerging water crisis in the Serengeti ecosystem and Lake Victoria
[Extract] The Serengeti ecosystem is often taken to be the 25000 km2 animal migration area (Figure 1a). This includes the 14,763 km2 Serengeti National Park (SNP), the Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya, and a number of game controlled areas that form a buffer zones, principally the Maswa, Ngorongoro, Loliondo, Ikorongo, Grumeti, and the Speke Gulf Game Controlled Area (SGGCA) that, although tiny (95 km2), is potentially important because, if human encroachment was removed, it would provide access for wildlife to the permanent waters of Lake Victoria (Figure I b). However this definition of the ecosystem ignores the hydrology. The Serengeti ecosystem has only one perennial river, the Mara River. The Mara River, together with a few scattered springs in the northern region of the SNP, is the only source of water for migrating wildlife in the dry season in a drought year. Thus the source of Mara River water in the dry season, namely the Mau forest in Kenya's highlands, is also part of the Serengeti ecosystem even if the migrating animals do not migrate to that area (Gereta et al., 2002 and 2009)
The role of vegetation in the water budget of the Usangu\ud wetlands, Tanzania
The Usangu wetlands were severely degraded over the last twenty years by cattle and the shortage of water due to rice irrigation upstream. The eastern Usangu wetlands that were previously perennial dried out in 2000 and 2002 in the dry season. Following the removal of cattle in 2006 from the eastern Usangu wetlands, perennial wetlands has re-established itself and in 2011 the vegetation had recovered and covered about 95 % of the wetted surface mainly as floating vegetation. These wetlands are the source of water of the Great Ruaha River and the volume of water entering the river has nearly doubled after cattle removal. We suggest that this may be due to the shading effect of the floating vegetation reducing the loss of water through net evaporation to about 0.5 cm day−1 as opposed to about 1 cm day−1 for open water evaporation in this tropical climate. This suggests the important role of the biology in controlling the water budget. By contrast cattle and rice farms have not been removed from the western Usangu wetlands, located upstream, where the wetlands are now reduced to small areas fringing the rivers. We suggest that the western Usangu wetlands should also be restored in order to further increase flows in the Great Ruaha River. At the same time water governance in the catchments and irrigation areas upstream of Usangu wetlands is also urgently required because present water yields are insufficient to meet the hydroelectric needs of Tanzania, the water users all along the river, as well as the important coastal wetlands associated with the Rufiji Delta during a drought year
Are Tanzanian National Parks affected by the water crisis? Findings and ecohydrology solutions
Availability of water for wildlife in some of the National Parks in Tanzania has been hampered by several factors including the effect of climate change and anthropogenic factors due to the fact that most of the water catchments are outside the national parks. In order to ensure the survival of the National Parks, TANAPA, which is a Parastatal Organization mandated to manage the National Parks, has taken proactive initiatives and actions to tackle the water crisis in its National Parks, principally the Serengeti, Tarangire, Ruaha, Katavi, Rubondo, Saadani, Arusha and Kilimanjaro National Parks. These initiatives and actions have followed the ecohydrology guidelines for water management and they varied from Park to Park according to the local conditions. There are limits to what TANAPA can achieve by itself to save its National Parks from the water crisis, because TANAPA has no control on activities outside the Parks. For those water issues TANAPA has communicated its findings and recommendations to the government and stakeholders, and the resolution, or otherwise, of these issues requires state governance as well as in some cases cooperation between the East African countries
Challenges in Implementing a Computerized Name-based Information Tracking System: Practical Experiences from Maternal Health Care
This paper presents challenges encountered in implementing a computerized name-based system for tracking information of pregnant women and children in rural clinics. Results indicate that the implementation of a computerized name-based system faces potential challenges that include; understanding the complexity of local healthcare practices within the community as well as correlating standardised and improvised data collection tools used in health facilities. Other challenges are; application of localised and standardised procedures in healthcare provision, replacing the paper-based system and lastly gradual learning curve during the implementation. These are initial findings drawn from a qualitative research study conducted in the Coastal region of Tanzania. This study intends to improve data reporting and utilisation of health facility services for pregnant women, children and other key community members.
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