We have a long-term and established collaboration with WASCAL (West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use), which is a Climate Service Centre dedicated to capacity building and research infrastructure strengthening in West Africa through a collaborative effort by West African and German partners. The University of Rostock stands out as one of the German partners of WASCAL as a member of the project consortium NetCDA (European Academic Network for Capacity Development in Climate Change Adaptations in Africa), which works in close collaboration with WASCAL graduate school programmes to support WASCAL doctoral students (including the co-supervision of students and logistical support during their research visits in Germany). Both WASCAL and NetCDA are funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; NetCDA via German Aerospace Center - DLR) and have been crucial for the successful capacity development of West African students and the strong international collaborations between Germany and West African research and education institutions. To learn more about WASCAL and NetCDA, click here and here.
WASCAL (West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use)
For 15 years, our team has been conducting in-depth field research in West Africa, currently as part of the WASCAL project. Topics include, for example, the classification and floristic composition of different savannah types, the influence of land use on plant diversity, regeneration of natural vegetation, and the spatial distribution of different habitats using GIS and satellite images. We also investigate important ecosystem services such as the pollination of important crops (cotton and sesame) by bees along land use gradients and carbon storage in savannah woodlands. Further studies deal with the reproductive ecology of economically relevant plant species and their germination behaviour under climate change scenarios and animal-plant interactions such as herbivory and seed dispersal.
The aim is to understand the dynamics of West African savannahs and to develop adaptation strategies in relation to land use and climate change. Biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions and services are to be preserved, and the resilience of socio-ecological systems and thus the living conditions of the local population are to be improved.