SEES Fellows: Living with locusts: Training an ecophysiologist to incorporate bioeconomic modeling and collaborative with applied food security and agricultural agencies

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In this Award from the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows Program), Dr. Arianne Cease from Arizona State University will investigate the interesting dynamic coupling between land use for agriculture (grazing of livestock) and the outbreak of swarms of locusts. This award is supported by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences and the Office of Integrative and International Activities.The proposed work will (1) develop a bioeconomic model to investigate the interactions between human behavior, insect-nutrient relations, and food security, via mathematical modeling of this complex system; (2) investigate how rangeland management impacts Oedalus locust outbreaks and migration through changes in macronutrients available in their food plants; and (3) work with stakeholders to devise policy which takes into account livestock-locust interactions and disseminate these findings through aid agencies to populations impacted by locusts.The aim of studies like that proposed in this work is to develop better land management practices that take into account the unusually complex couplings between agricultural activities and ecological systems.Dr. Cease will be working with collaborators Prof. Jon Harrison of the School of Life Sciences of Arizona State University as well as Prof. Eli Fenechel at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies of Yale University. The work will also involve collaboration with Profs. James Elser and Asst. Dean Charles Kazilek at Arizona State University; Prof. Stephen J. Simpson of the School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney and Dr. James D. Woodman of the Australian Plague Locust Commission; and Dr. Todd Crosby of USAID/Project Yaajeenda and Dr. Aliou Diongue of the Plant Protection Service, Senegal. This project is supported under the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows) program, with the goal of helping to enable discoveries needed to inform actions that lead to environmental, energy and societal sustainability while creating the necessary workforce to address these challenges. With SEES Fellows support, this project will enable a promising early career researcher to establish themselves in an independent research career related to sustainability.