Analysis Of Trend And Variability Of Temperature In Ebonyi State, South -Eastern Nigeria, 1984 -2015

Issues related to climate change and global warming arising from anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases have emerge as one of the most important environmental issues in the past few decades (Singh et al., 2013). Human activities at present are altering the carbon cycle by adding more CO2 to the atmosphere and also by influencing the ability of natural sinks, like forests, to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The emission of carbon dioxide comes from a variety of natural sources; but human -relate d emissions are responsible for the increase that has occurred in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution. Evidence has shown that the level of carbon dioxide in earth’s atmosphere presently is higher than at any time in the last 800,000 years. For instance in 2014, global CO2 emissions were projected to increase by an additional 2.5% over the 2013 level (USNCDC, 2013). Other sources of these emissions include water vapour, clorofluorocarbons (CFCs), methane, tropospheric ozone and nitrous oxide. These gases are released into the atmosphere due to human activities such as burning of fossil fuel, gas flaring and deforestation amongst others .These gases are termed greenhouse gases, because they act as the glass of a greenhouse or sunroom which is relatively transparent to solar radiation which is in short wavelength but absorbs and emits terrestrial radiation which is in lo ng wavelength, and thereby increasing the temperature within the glass house or room. The continuous built up of greenhouse gases may induce changes in climatic system including increases in mean global temperatures. The global mean surface air temperature has risen by about 0.74°C from 1906 to 2005 and this rise has been attributed mostly to a rise in greenhouse gases (IPCC, 2007). Changes in temperature influence a variety of processes directly or indirectly for example the hydrological process. Temperature increases causes intensification of the hydrological cycle due to increase in evaporation and precipitation(Jain and Kumar, 2012; Tshiala et al., 2011) Temperature changes can also lead to changing patterns of precipitation, the spatial and temporal distribution 
of runoff, soil moisture, and groundwater reserves as well as increased frequency of drought and flood occurrences (Tshiala et al., 2011). Changing temperature patterns could also have effects on soil and plant growth characteristics since temperature and water content are important physical factors for plant growth especially in Ebonyi State were majority are engaged in one form of agriculture or another as their source of livelihood. Non-optimum levels of water and temperature conditions can strongly perturb plant development, especially at the early stages of growth such as seed germination and emergence (Tshiala et al., 2011). Changes in climate may also impact the water availability and water needs for agriculture. If temperature increases and more sporadic rainfall events result from global warming, this will increase the demand irrigation needs in the future. The increasing number of heat-related deaths worldwide over the last few decades have portrayed an alarming picture of the extreme weather conditions and devastating impacts on human health to come if this warming continues unmitigated (CENR, 2008).Developing countries however have a challenge of inadequate information to tackle the inherent consequences that might result from the changes in temperature. Some of the measures put in place to tackle climate change such as mitigation, adaptation and vulnerability assessment may not yield valuable result if the extent to which these variables have varied is not known. This study therefore examines the trend and variability in temperature over Ebonyi State South- eastern Nigeria.