Linking agricultural land-use intensity, ecological integrity and infection risk in the rural Sahel

农业为个人、社会和经济体提供关键产品和利益（粮食、纤维、燃料、收入、生计）。然而，这往往是以环境的巨大代价为代价的（森林砍伐、生物多样性丧失、入侵物种、化学污染、土壤流失、地下水退化和温室气体排放）。这些因素共同强烈影响人类健康;例如，通过对饮食、疾病宿主和病媒的影响，或暴露于极端气候。该项目的总体目标是通过西非冈比亚快速发展的农业透镜，对环境变化（气候、土地使用、生物多样性、污染物）的累积健康风险进行强有力的综合调查。在这里，与撒哈拉以南非洲和其他发展中地区一样，农业主导着农村生计，来自农业的环境压力和对农业的影响正在增加，和传染病的负担归因于环境因素既高和解决不力。该项目的具体目标是连接跨农业土地利用强度梯度的生态完整性指标，以向量-该项目包括三个组成部分：一）用于确定每个地点的农业类型（范围、活动）、疾病风险因素和生态完整性措施的跨部门环境评估。这将包括实地调查（土地、水、植物、动物、化学品）和遥感分析（例如，卫星传感器，无人机图像，用于“声景”分析的地面声学传感器）。ii）结合起来，学生将在每个地点进行密集采样，以量化传染病媒介的存在和多样性（例如，蚊子、白蛉、蜱）;iii）第三个组成部分将整合i）和ii），使用创新的分析和建模方法来解决当地病媒多样性的驱动因素，建立其与生态完整性的联系，并测试与农业土地使用变化有关的假设（例如，将与管理资源中心冈比亚股合作，在西非冈比亚开展组成部分i）和ii）。现场取样将是密集的，在项目过程中总共需要至少6个月的时间，以便在雨季和旱季进行取样。我们鼓励学生花相当大的一部分时间在冈比亚的PIs实验室（行星健康）工作，其余时间在伦敦的Silwood Park（森林生态与保护）的co-I实验室工作。有关如何申请我们的更多信息，请访问：https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/educationThe项目将在一个更大的项目背景下进行，重点关注农业发展的净健康影响及其对人类健康的贡献。环境和社会变革。该学生将与另一名博士生合作，该博士生正在量化整个网站网络中的人畜接触和人畜共患病风险。可能与该项目相关的其他平行项目将侧重于其他人类健康成果，包括通过与饮食多样性的联系获得营养，以及通过与当地小气候的联系获得热暴露。

Agriculture delivers critical products and benefits to individuals, societies and economies (food, fibre, fuels, incomes, livelihoods). However, this often comes at great expense to the environment (deforestation, biodiversity loss, invasive species, chemical pollution, soil loss, groundwater degradation and greenhouse gas emissions). Together, these strongly affect human health; for example, via impacts on diets, disease hosts and vectors, or exposure to climatic extremes.The overarching aim of this Project is to conduct robust, integrated investigations into the cumulative health risks of environmental change (climate, land-use, biodiversity, pollutants) through the lens of agriculture in a rapidly developing setting in The Gambia, West Africa. Here, as for much of Sub Saharan Africa and developing regions elsewhere, agriculture dominates rural livelihoods, environmental stressors from and impacting upon agriculture are increasing, and the burden of infectious diseases attributable to environmental factors is both high and poorly resolved.This project specifically aims to link metrics of ecological integrity across agricultural land-use intensity gradients to vector-borne disease risks in people.The project comprises three components:i) Cross-sectional environmental assessments used to characterise agricultural typologies (extent, activities), disease risk factors and ecological integrity measures in each site. This will comprise a combination of field surveys (land, water, plant, animal, chemical) and remote sensing analysis (e.g., satellite sensors, drone imagery, ground-based acoustic sensors for "soundscape" analysis).ii) In combination, the student will conduct intensive sampling within each site to quantify the presence and diversity of infectious disease vectors (e.g., mosquitoes, sandflies, ticks);iii) A third component will integrate i) and ii) using innovative analysis and modelling approaches to resolve the drivers of local vector diversity, establish their links to ecological integrity, and test hypotheses relating land-use change for agriculture (e.g., following a sustainable agricultural intensification approach) to vector-borne disease risks.Components i) and ii) will be undertaken in The Gambia, West Africa, in collaboration with the MRC Unit The Gambia. Field sampling will be intensive and require a minimum commitment of around 6 months in total over the course of the project in order to conduct sampling in both a wet and a dry season. The student would be encouraged to spend a considerable part of the PhD in The Gambia working in the PIs lab (Planetary Health), with the remainder spent in London in the co-I's lab at Silwood Park (Forest Ecology and Conservation).For more information on how to apply to us please visit: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/educationThe project will sit within a larger project context focussing on the net health impacts of agricultural development and its contribution to environmental and social change. The student will work with another PhD student who is quantifying human-animal contact and zoonotic disease risks across the site network. Other parallel projects that may connect to this project will focus on other human health outcomes, including nutrition via links with dietary diversity and heat exposure via links with local microclimates.