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Climate change and the aquatic ecosystems of the Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda

Taylor, RG; Rose, NL; Mackay, AW; Panizzo, V; Mileham, L; Ssemmanda, I; Tindimugaya, C; + view all (2007) Climate change and the aquatic ecosystems of the Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda. (ECRC Research Report 113 ). UCL Environmental Change Research Centre: London, UK. Green open access

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Abstract

The Rwenzori Mountains are home to one of the last remaining tropical icefields outside of the Andes. Over the last century, equatorial icefields of the East African highlands have been steadily shrinking but the precise climate tropical alpine glaciers remain unclear. More than a decade had passed since the last detailed measurements of glacial cover were made in the Rwenzori Mountains. Recent evidence from Kilimanjaro suggests that its icecap will disappear entirely by the year 2020(1). The Rwenzori glaciers contribute meltwater flows to aquatic ecosystems of the Rwenzori Mountains National Park, a Word Heritage Site featuring spectacular, rare Afroalpine flora and fauna, and are headwaters of the River Nile. With the overall aim of assessing the impact of recent climate change on alpine aquatic ecosystems of the Rwenzori Mountains, a collaborative, international research team led by the University College London (United Kingdom) and Makerere University (Uganda), and involving the Institut für Geographie from the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and Water Resources Management Department (Uganda) was assembled in order to pursue three primary scientific objectives: • to assess the magnitude of current glacial recession; • to assess the impact of glacial recession on alpine riverflow; and • to assess recent environmental change from observational datasets and available, environmental archives stored in lake sediment and glacial ice.

Type: Report
Title: Climate change and the aquatic ecosystems of the Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Publisher version: https://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/research/research-centr...
Language: English
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Geography
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10112947
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