Issues and Concepts in Pastoral Ecology and Dry Tropical Ecosystems

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The South Turkana Ecosystem Project (STEP) is a long-term, interdisciplinary ecosystem-oriented study of Ngisonyoka Turkana pastoral nomads and their interactions with a dry savanna/woodland ecosystem in Northern Kenya. The initial objective of STEP in the early 1980s was to determine how Ngisonyoka pastoralists, with only their traditional technology, managed to survive and persist in a dry and drought-stressed ecosystem, in the midst of rampant banditry and inter-tribal warfare. Over the last ten years the project has conducted a number of studies on landscapes, vegetation, livestock, and people. The project team will now perform research-synthesis phase of two years duration for the purpose of pulling together and synthesizing the results of the diverse disciplinary studies around ecosystem level concepts or particular issues that have arisen during the course of the work. By integrating the results of field and modeling work around important issues and concepts it is expected that the group will (1) demonstrate that studies of human ecology, biology and society can be integrated into ecosystem science; (2) show that it is feasible to incorporate climate studies, ecosystem analyses, and social science within a single investigatory and modeling framework; (3) provide several new insights into the structure and dynamics of dry tropical ecosystems and, most importantly; (4) present a holistic portrait of the ecology of pastoral nomads, their biological, social, and resource exploitation strategies, and their interactions with their ecosystem.