The Climate-Environment-Society Nexus in the Sahara from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day
The Climate-Environment-Society Nexus in the Sahara from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day
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DOI：
10.1080/13629380500336680
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发表时间：
2005-01-01
影响因子：
0.6
通讯作者：
Prospero, Joseph
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Brooks, Nick;Chiapello, Isabelle;Prospero, Joseph
撒哈拉沙漠是考古学、人类与环境相互作用、全球地球化学循环和全球气候变化研究的关键区域。除了少数几个明显的例外，该区域很少受到国际科学研究的关注，鉴于撒哈拉靠近欧洲，其人口不断增长面临发展问题，该区域对气候变化的敏感性以及撒哈拉通过输出空气中的矿物粉尘影响全球气候的潜力，这一事实是值得注意的。本文试图从跨学科的角度来解决撒哈拉地区人与环境的相互作用，重点关注撒哈拉环境变异性和变化对该地区内外人口的影响，时间跨度从几十年到几千年不等。文章首先讨论了过去的气候变化及其对人类的影响，然后在其长期背景下考虑当今的水资源和降雨量的变化;还讨论了一些气候模型所建议的撒哈拉南部“绿化”的可能性。撒哈拉作为世界上最大的空气中矿物粉尘来源的作用，在一定程度上详细处理，是灰尘对气候，生态系统和人类健康的影响，以及未来气候变化对灰尘产生的影响和撒哈拉在地球系统中的作用。文章最后进行了讨论和综合，探讨了从撒哈拉自然科学和社会科学研究中可以学到的教训，特别是侧重于过去环境和社会文化变化的特征可以告诉我们人类对气候和环境变化的反应和适应-在人为气候变化或“全球变暖”的背景下，这一问题对研究人员和政策制定者都具有重大意义。
The Sahara is a key region for studies of archaeology, human-environment interaction, global biogeochemical cycles, and global climate change. With a few notable exceptions, the region is the subject of very little international scientific research, a fact that is remarkable given the Sahara's proximity to Europe, the developmental issues facing its growing population, the region's sensitivity to climate change and the Sahara's potential for influencing global climate through the export of airborne mineral dust. This article seeks to address human-environment interaction in the Sahara from an interdisciplinary perspective, focusing on the implications of Saharan environmental variability and change for human populations both within and outside of the region on timescales ranging from decades to millennia. The article starts by addressing past climatic changes and their impacts on human populations, before moving on to consider present day water resources and rainfall variability in their longer-term context; the possibility of a 'greening' of the southern Sahara as suggested by some climate models is also discussed. The role of the Sahara as the world's largest source of airborne mineral dust is addressed in some detail, as are the impacts of dust on climate, ecosystems and human health, as well as the implications of future changes in climate for dust production and the role of the Sahara in the Earth system. The article ends with a discussion and synthesis that explores the lessons that may be learnt from a study of the physical and social sciences in the Sahara, in particular focusing on what the signature of past environmental and socio-cultural changes can tell us about human responses and adaptations to climatic and environmental change - a matter of great relevance to researchers and policy makers alike in the context of anthropogenic climate change or 'global warming'.