Class 4 - Mara and carbon Flashcards
What is a river basin/watershed?
An area that drains water to a shared destination such as lakes, streams or oceans
What does a watershed do?
Captures precipitation, fiilters and stores water, detremines the release. A healthy one releases slowly over time
What is watershed management?
Implementing land-use and water management practices to protect the quality of water within a watershed by managing the resources in a holistic manner and concidering upstream and downstream effects
Characteristics of the Mara river basin
Part of the Nile river basin, covers 13,000 km2, Mara river is 392 km long, Flows through many biomes, flows into lake Victoria
Towns in the Mara basin?
Bomet, Narok, Mulot, Nyamongo, Tarime
Problems in the Mara river basin
fencing, charcoal production, mining, evictions, deforestation, tourism, floods, tea plantations, increased population, grazing, climate change
What are the two most important greenshouse gasses?
CO2 and Methane
Why is carbon interesting
The main building block of all organic molecules, part of all living organisms
What is photosynthesis?
Capturing energy and carbon and storing it as organic matter. Carbon dioxide + water + sun = sugars and oxygen
Where is methane produced?
Natural processes, fossil fuel burning, rice fields, animals, landfills
What are the main greenshouse gasses and what do they do?
CO2, Methane, nitrious oxide, flourocarbon gasses - capture heat and prevents it from escaping intp space
What are the 3 pillars of climate-smart-agriculture?
- Sustainably increase agricultural productivity and increase income of farmers, 2. Build resilience and adaptation to climate change, 3. Reduce greenshouse gas emissions
What is the Calliandra?
A tree in the tropics which provides fuelwood, fodder, fibre, honey, shellac and shade, erosion control, weed control, soil improvement, water regulation. It is potentially invasive
What is the Faidherbia albida?
A non-invasive tree in Africa which provides a lot of the same services as Calliandra
What is agroforestry?
Agriculture with a combination of trees, crops and/or livestock - they mimic natural ecosystems
What is conservation farming?
- Minimum soil disturbance, 2. permanent soil cover, 3. crop diversity and rotation
What is permaculture?
Mimicks natural ecosystems, multi-layered, permanent ground cover, no disturbance of soil, energy capture and storage
What is biochar and what dows it do?
Charcoal from biomass, improves soil fertility, increases water retention, reduce acidity of soil, stores carbon long term
What is the population at the Mara basin?
1.1 million
Describe the area where the Mara river starts
- Starts in the wetlands in the montains: Would be forest, but forest has been cut, lots of small scale farming, grazing, some large scale farming like tea plantations, the Mau forest (evergreen tropical mountain forest) where the Ogiek lives (many kicked out to protect the forest, even though they guarded the forest), some plantation forest used for timber production (non-natural forest)
