Carly Muir won the prize for the best undergraduate poster at the Florida Society of Geographers
Annual Meeting in Tallahassee. Her research, carried out as a directed
independent study, is part of a large NASA funded program in the department
under the leadership of Prof. Southworth. Carly analyzed daily rainfall records
from Maun, Botswana between 1950 and1993 to detect changes in rainfall totals,
the number of rainy days and the start and finish of the rainy season, that may
have been experienced in this part of southern Africa in association with a
global shift in climate in the late 1970s. This is a semi-arid region in which
all agriculture is entirely rain-fed. The local populace is therefore very
vulnerable to slight changes in rainfall climatology. It is also a region,
which, under proposed climate change scenarios, will suffer further future
dessica! tion. How the locals adapted to this change in past conditions may
give some indication of successfull adaptation strategies for the future. A
paper based on her research has been submitted to UF’s Journal of Undergraduate
Research for publication.