BIOTA West - BIOdiversity monitoring Transect Analysis in West Africa

Keywords

Biodiversity, climate change, vegetation dynamics, land surface - atmosphere interactions

Countries

Burkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast

Summary

The scientific research of BIOTA subproject W02 focuses on hydrometeorological and biophysical parameters that affect the local biocoenoses. With regard to future scenarios and the development of sustainable management strategies it is important to know how land cover changes affect regional patterns of climate and biodiversity, and vice versa. Based on the experiences from BIOTA West Africa pilot phase our prime objective is therefore to generate a multi-scaled scientifically sound climatological framework derived by reliable experimental field measurements and a profound analysis of regional climate variability including vegetation dynamics and land cover / land use changes.

Main Cooperation Partners

• Burkina Faso: Universite Ouagadougou; Institut de l'Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA)
• Benin: Universite Abomey-Calavi
• CI: Universite d'Abobo Adjame; Universite de Cocody; Station d'Ecologie Tropicale de Lamto; Institut de Geographie Tropicale (IGT)

Main Funding Partners

German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Duration of the Project

BIOTA 1st phase: 01/2001 to 03/2004
BIOTA 2nd phase: 03/2004 to 03/2007
BIOTA 3rd phase: 03/2007 to 03/2010

Team

• Prof. Dr. Paul Vlek (project leader)
• Dr. Ulrike Falk (project coordinator)