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

农业为个人、社会和经济(粮食、纤维、燃料、收入、生计)提供关键产品和利益。然而，这往往是以环境为代价的(砍伐森林、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)。这些因素一起严重影响人类健康；例如，通过影响饮食、疾病宿主和病媒或暴露在气候极端环境中。该项目的总体目标是在西非冈比亚快速发展的背景下，通过农业的视角对环境变化(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，与撒哈拉以南非洲的大部分地区和其他发展中地区一样，农业主导着农村生计，农业带来的环境压力和对农业的影响正在增加，可归因于环境因素的传染病的负担既高又解决得不好。该项目具体旨在将农业土地利用强度梯度上的生态完整性指标与媒介传播的疾病风险联系起来。该项目包括三个部分：i)用于描述每个地点的农业类型(程度、活动)、疾病风险因素和生态完整性措施的横断面环境评估。这将包括实地调查(土地、水、植物、动物、化学物质)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)的结合。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(例如蚊子、沙蝇、扁虱)的存在和多样性；三)第三个组成部分将整合i)和ii)，利用创新的分析和建模办法解决当地病媒生物多样性的驱动因素，确定其与生态完整性的联系，并测试与农业土地利用变化(如采用可持续农业集约化办法)与病媒传播疾病风险有关的假设。实地采样将是密集的，需要在项目期间总共至少承诺约6个月，以便在雨季和旱季都能进行采样。学生将被鼓励在冈比亚攻读博士学位的相当一部分时间在PIS实验室(行星健康)工作，其余时间在伦敦锡尔伍德公园的联合实验室(森林生态和保护)工作。有关如何向我们申请的更多信息，请访问：https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/educationThe项目将位于一个更大的项目背景下，专注于农业发展的净健康影响及其对环境和社会变化的贡献。这名学生将与另一名博士生一起工作，后者正在量化整个站点网络中的人与动物接触和人畜共患病风险。其他可能与该项目相关的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建立联系的营养以及通过与当地小气候建立联系的热暴露。

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.