According to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, climate change will exacerbate current climate and non-climate stressors on agricultural systems in sub-Saharan Africa. This will adversely impact food security and the wellbeing of communities. Small-scale farmers grow more than 90 percent of the food produced in the region and many households depend on productive local growing conditions to support for their families. A better understanding of recent and near future climate constraints is important for identifying future food security risks and locally-appropriate adaptation strategies.

This dissertation research examines impacts of weather and climate on vegetation productivity in geographically diverse areas of east Africa and the semi-arid Sahel. The focus of this research is how surface energy and water budgets respond to variations in rainfall and temperature. It asks the following questions: Where will warmer temperature pose a hazard to rainfed agriculture in the Sahel in the next 20 years? What environment and weather conditions led to above average surface temperature during the recent decade in east Africa? How have declines in rainfall since the 1980s impacted vegetation productivity and hydrology in Tanzania? The research incorporates a variety of earth observation data, including historical records from in situ, model-derived, and satellite-observed sources and projections from global climate models. A major contribution is the identification of specific areas, mainly in semi-arid climate zones, where increases in temperature and decreases to rainfall have large negative impacts on vegetation productivity. The research also presents new methods for evaluating land-atmosphere interactions in the context of hazards to vegetation.