Kalissaye Avifaunal Reserve (KAR) is a small nature reserve in Senegal, located at the mouth of Kalissaye Pond in the middle of the Casamance River. Like

Basse Casamance National Park Basse Casamance National Park, located near Oussouye Department, Oussouye in Ziguinchor Region, Ziguinchor, is one of six national parks in Senegal. It is currently closed. History The park was created in 1970. Characteristics It encompasses an a ...

35 km away, KAR is currently closed due to the

Casamance Conflict The Casamance conflict is an ongoing low-level conflict that has been waged between the Government of Senegal and the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) since 1982. On May 1, 2014 the leader of the MFDC sued for peace and declared a ...

Flora

On the small sandy islands making up the reserve, vegetation consists mainly of '' Ipomoea pes-caprae'', ''

Sporobolus spicatus ''Sporobolus spicatus'', also known as salt grass, is a halophyte. Distribution This bunchgrass is distributed: *in dryer parts of Africa such as Namibia, as a well known common plant in the western desert of Egypt *from the Mediterranean coas ...

'', and '' Alternanthera maritima''.

Fauna

The reserve was created in 1978 to protect

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, ...

and seabird colonies. There were more than 10,000 Caspian terns (''Sterna caspia'') in the reserve during the 1980s, and there are also many

royal tern The royal tern (''Thalasseus maximus'') is a tern in the family Laridae. The species is endemic to the Americas, though strays have been identified in Europe.Buckley, P. A. and F. G. Buckley (2020). Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus), version 1.0. ...

s (''Thalasseus maximus'') and

great white pelican The great white pelican (''Pelecanus onocrotalus'') also known as the eastern white pelican, rosy pelican or white pelican is a bird in the pelican family. It breeds from southeastern Europe through Asia and Africa, in swamps and shallow lakes. ...

s (''Pelecanus onocrotalus''). Several sea turtle species are quite populous, including loggerheads (''Caretta caretta'') and green turtles (''Chelonia mydas''). The

common dolphin The common dolphin (''Delphinus delphis'') is the most abundant cetacean in the world, with a global population of about six million. Despite this fact and its vernacular name, the common dolphin is not thought of as the archetypal dolphin, with ...

(''Delphinus delphis'') and the

African manatee The African manatee (''Trichechus senegalensis''), also known as the West African manatee, is a species of manatee that inhabits much of the western region of Africa – from Senegal to Angola. It is the only manatee species to be found in the ...

(''Trichechus senegalensis'') are also observed in the area.

Climate change

In 2022, the

IPCC Sixth Assessment Report The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the sixth in a series of reports which assess scientific, technical, and socio-economic information concerning climate change. Three ...

included Kalissaye Avifaunal Reserve in the list of African natural heritage sites which would be threatened by flooding and

coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landward ...

by the end of the century, but only if

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

followed RCP 8.5, which is the scenario of high and continually increasing

greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorbs and Emission (electromagnetic radiation), emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse ...

emissions associated with the warming of over 4°C., and is no longer considered very likely. The other, more plausible scenarios result in lower warming levels and consequently lower sea level rise: yet, sea levels would continue to increase for about 10,000 years under all of them. Even if the warming is limited to 1.5°C, global sea level rise is still expected to exceed after 2000 years (and higher warming levels will see larger increases by then), consequently exceeding 2100 levels of sea level rise under RCP 8.5 (~ with a range of ) well before the year 4000.IPCC, 2021
Summary for Policymakers
In
Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
[Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S.L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M.I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J.B.R. Matthews, T.K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu, and B. Zhou (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 3−32, doi:10.1017/9781009157896.001.

References

External links

Kalissaye Avifaunal Reserve

World Database on Protected Areas

Official website

Wetlands International
{{National Parks of Senegal Nature reserves in Senegal Ramsar sites in Senegal

Flora

Fauna

Climate change

See also

References

External links