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The PAGES-supported 5th West African Quaternary Research Association (WAQUA) training session will be held from 26-30 September 2016 in Bamako, Mali.
Location
Faculté d’Histoire et Geographie, Bamako, Mali.
Topic of training session
Methods and techniques for Quaternary paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Timescales covered will be Pleistocene-Holocene.
The training session will be held simultaneously in English and French.
Overview
The understanding of past paleoenvironmental conditions are a key to understanding current changes in the earth’s natural systems. The current climatic, ecological and hydrological conditions bear evidences of past changes that when understood can help grasp the historical and functional impact of changes.
The past paleoenvironment of West Africa is not well understood, whereas proxies of the past conditions are abundant. One of the main reasons is the lack of quaternary researchers and also the lack of training in quaternary research methodologies such are quaternary sedimentological techniques, dendrochronology, analysis of pollen and phytoliths.
The aim of this training session is to train university lecturers and researchers from West Africa, specialised in biology, physical geography, ecology, geology and archeology, in techniques that can be used to reconstruct quaternary environmental conditions.
The main expected results, in the short term, is the building up of a work group on quaternary environmental reconstruction in west Africa and in the long term, in developing a scholarship in quaternary science in the region that is currently missing.
This workshop enables researchers from west Africa to learn the capabilities to analyze paleoclimatic variability and its environmental impacts from fluvial and lacustrine archives (sediments, soils). This may help to access the roles of different natural and anthropogenic impacts in forcing environmental and geographical change. These paleoenvironment reconstructions will be produced at a sub-regional scale that will be very helpful to modelers of future climatic trends.
The primary objective of the training session is to build academic partnerships and enhance Quaternary research capacity in the West African region, by training geologists, botanists, archeologists, physical geographers, so that they can undertake research projects in paleoenvironmental reconstruction.
Key speakers/mentors/lecturers
Dr Chantal Kabonyi (R.D. Congo), specialist in palynology
Dr Monique Tossou (République of Benin), biologist and specialist in palynology and Diatoms
Dr Ntamwira Niranda (R.D. Congo), specialist in Dendrology
Dr N'dji dit Jacques Dembele (Republic of Mali), Quaternary Geology
Call for applications
Further information is available in English here: /sites/default/files/sites/default/files/download/docs/workshops/waqua-16-applications.pdf
Further information is available in French here: /sites/default/files/sites/default/files/download/docs/workshops/waqua-16-applic-french.pdf
Registration
Registrations close 31 August 2016.
Please fill out the following word document and return as per instructions on the form: /sites/default/files/sites/default/files/download/docs/workshops/waqua-16-registrations.docx
Further information
If you need more information, please send one email addressed to the following three organizers:
N’dji dit Jacques Dembele: ndjijac@gmail.com
Yabi Ibouraima: yafid2@yahoo.fr
Obianuju Umeji: obianuju.umeji@unn.edu.ng
Post-meeting material
