Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Implications of Changes in Fisheries on the Diets and Well-Being of Regional Residents

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This doctoral dissertation research project will explore issues of resilience and adaptability in the face of changing natural resources by examining how environmental changes impact household diets and livelihoods. The doctoral student will analyze the complex human and natural system dynamics around the Lake Victoria fishery in eastern Africa and will create a model that traces the effects of environmental change on fish access, local fish consumption, and nutritional consequences associated with health, livelihood, and resource changes of the people dependent on and involved in the Lake Victoria fishery. This project will enhance basic understanding of connections among the Earth's biotic and human systems. The project also will provide new insights into the resilience and adaptability in socioecological systems as people and communities seek to maintain or improve their diets and well-being in the face of changing natural conditions associated with the resources on which they depend. The model and findings resulting from this project will be adaptable for use by a range of agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development as well as other organizations, groups, and communities concerned about with the environment, livelihoods, resource security and health in this and other locales in many different nations. The collaborative relationships developed by the student and her advisors will facilitate her work with resource managers, government agencies, healthcare organizations, and community-based organizations. These organizations will use project findings to facilitate their refinement of programs designed to improve economic productivity of fisheries while also maintaining environmental quality and the wellbeing of local people. The collaborations also will help educate and train graduate and undergraduate students in the U.S. and development of an educational initiative that will reach middle school students in the U.S. and Kenya. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.This research project will bring theories and approaches from political ecology together with perspectives and methods from ecology and public health. The doctoral student will use a set of methods from different disciplines to examine this complex socioecological system. She will link existing data on fish catch and household fish consumption with analyses of the nutrient composition analyses of local fish species. Analysis of the macro and micronutrients in fish will extend the understanding of consequences of changes in the fishery, and she will help assess the implications of the changing composition and stocks of various fish species for the diets of regional residents.