A new study led by a University of Kentucky professor is sounding the alarm on the impact climate change could have on one of the world’s most vulnerable regions.
A new study led by a University of Kentucky professor is sounding the alarm on the impact climate change could have on one of the world’s most vulnerable regions.
Michael McGlue, Pioneer Natural Resources Professor of Stratigraphy in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, and his team conducted the study at Lake Tanganyika — a major African fishery. The results, which published today in Science Advances, show how certain changes in climate may place the fishery at risk, potentially diminishing food resources for millions of people in this area of eastern Africa.
"Lake Tanganyika’s fish are a critically important resource for impoverished people from four nations (Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Zambia) and resilience to environmental change in that region is quite low,” McGlue said. “Our study revealed that high frequency variability in climate can lead to major disruptions in how the lake's food web functions.”
Small pelagic fish, known locally as dagaa, are abundant in Lake Tanganyika, and their conservation is pivotal to the food security and economy of rapidly growing and largely impoverished segments of these four nations.
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Image via University of Kentucky.
