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The large lakes of the East African Rift Valley are among the
oldest on Earth, and are vital resources for the people of their
basins. They are unique among the large lakes of the world in terms
of their sensitivity to climatic change, rich and diverse
populations of endemic species, circulation dynamics and
water-column chemistry, and long, continuous records of past
climatic change. A comprehensive study of the large African lakes
is long overdue. The scientific justification for such an effort is
noted in the previous paragraph and is illustrated in great detail
in this volume. Societal need for the sustainable utilization of
these lakes offers an even more compelling reason for examination
of biological food webs, water quality, and past climate
variability in East Africa. The lakes provide the most important
source of protein for the people of the African Rift Valley, and
fish populations are shifting dramatically in response to fishing
pressure, introduction of exotic species, land use impact on water
quality, and perhaps climatic change. Current estimates of primary
productivity, the underpinning of the food resource, are extremely
crude and based on only a few spot measurements.
IDEAL, the International Decade for East African Lakes, is a
ten-year multi-national, multi-disciplinary investigation of the
biological, geological, chemical, and physical limnology of the
East African Lakes, taking into special account the Great Lakes of
the East African Rift Valley and the climatology and
paleoclimatology of the Rift Valley itself. The selected papers in
this book serve as baseline knowledge for this intensive
examination, with most of the contributing authors already actively
researching these lakes. The oldest in the world and the largest on
the continent, the lakes are vital resources for the indigenous
populations of their basins. They are unique not only in their
diverse populations of endemic species of fish and invertebrates,
but in their sensitivity to climatic change, unusual circulation
dynamics and water-column chemistry in relation to higher
altitudes, and continuous record of climatic change in tropical
Africa. This volume provides an overview of our current knowledge
of the lakes combined with the most recent results of specific
research efforts by African, American, and European investigators.
Included also are some discussions on the impact of man, as well as
comprehensive bibliographies.
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