Nowhere is the need for climate change assessment more urgent than in Africa. The continent combines the most climate vulnerable societies, ecosystems, and agrosystems on Earth, with the largest uncertainties in 21st century climate predictions. Yet, a vibrant scientific community is making fast advances in a broad range of environmental sciences.

The objective of this international workshop, hosted by the University of Marrakesh, Morocco, one year after the COP22, is to bring together African scientists and their international peers from complementary fields to build long-term synergies between climatology and ecology, millennial scale and modern observations, modelled and observational data, in global and African contexts.

During 3 days of scientific sessions and discussions, followed by a 2 day field excursion to Moroccan desert and oases, we will summarize the current progress on short and long-term trends in African climate, the interactions between climate and ecosystems on millennial to seasonal time scales, and the impacts of climate change on forests and crops productivity. The workshop is aimed to be a friendly and interactive experience to foster discussion, synthesis, future research actions, and publications on specific questions including:

• Is the African climate currently within or beyond the pre-industrial natural variability?

• How sensitive are African ecosystems and agrosystems to climate change?

• Can we quantify the climate-vegetation feedback in Africa?

• How is African climate linked to the rest of the world and external forcings?

Any scientist working in these fields and willing to contribute is welcome. The event is limited to 100 persons, so please register and send your abstract soon enough. We are looking forward to meeting you in Marrakesh.

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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

 

- Pascal Braconnot (LSCE, Paris, France)

- Daithi Stone (Berkeley, USA)

- Peter DeMenocal (Columbia university, NY, USA)

- Lydie Dupont (Marum, Bremen, Germany)

​​- Neil Roberts (University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK)

- Enno Schefuß (Marum, Bremen, Germany)