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Baccalaureate Oral Exam 2009: Series A4-A5    

A Warmer Climate Spreads Savanna

Climate Research with the help of the latest computer based climate models, international climate researchers have managed to create an image of future environmental scenarios. Scientists with the Potsdam-based Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK) have found out that the vegetation of Sahara and tundra will be subjected to dramatic changes. Their simulation models demonstrate that higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the related rise in temperatures as well as an increase in precipitation in tropical regions can exert a dramatic influence on the vegetation along the southern stretches of the Sahara and tundra. The consequence: the savanna, a wooded grassland, will spread into the Sahara desert and the forested taiga into the tundra, that is characterized by mosses and lichens. "This change can come about quite abruptly, in the case of the Sahara inside of only a few decades", says Professor Dr. Martin Claussen, who heads the Sahara study at the PIK. In the course of our planet's history, there have been several sudden shifts in climate and vegetation: Approximately 11,000 to 6,000 years ago, the Sahara region was clearly greener and the taiga forests wandered north. Scientists hence presume parallels to exist between former and future fluctuations of climate and vegetation. "The physical mechanisms play a different role", explains PIK researcher Victor Brovkin, who authored the tundra report.

Dialog 2003: Journal of International Advanced Training and Development, p.5.