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

这一博士论文研究项目将通过研究环境变化如何影响家庭饮食和生计来探索面对不断变化的自然资源的弹性和适应性问题。这位博士生将分析东非维多利亚湖渔业周围复杂的人类和自然系统动力学，并将创建一个模型，追踪环境变化对鱼类获取、当地鱼类消费的影响，以及与依赖和参与维多利亚湖渔业的人们的健康、生计和资源变化相关的营养后果。该项目将加强对地球生物和人类系统之间联系的基本了解。该项目还将对社会生态系统的复原力和适应性提供新的见解，因为人们和社区在面对与他们所依赖的资源相关的不断变化的自然条件时，寻求维持或改善他们的饮食和福祉。该项目产生的模型和结果将适用于一系列机构，如美国国际开发署以及其他组织、团体和社区，这些组织、团体和社区关心这个地区和许多不同国家其他地区的环境、生计、资源安全和健康。学生和她的导师建立的协作关系将促进她与资源经理、政府机构、医疗保健组织和社区组织的合作。这些组织将利用项目调查结果，促进其改进旨在提高渔业经济生产率的方案，同时保持环境质量和当地人民的福祉。这些合作还将有助于教育和培训美国的研究生和本科生，并制定一项将惠及美国和肯尼亚中学生的教育计划。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将为有前途的学生建立强大的独立研究生涯提供支持。该研究项目将把政治生态学的理论和方法与生态学和公共卫生的视角和方法结合起来。博士生将使用一套来自不同学科的方法来研究这个复杂的社会生态系统。她将把现有的渔获量和家庭鱼类消费数据与当地鱼类品种的营养成分分析联系起来。分析鱼类中的宏量和微量营养素将扩大对渔业变化后果的理解，并将有助于评估各种鱼类的组成和种群变化对区域居民饮食的影响。

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.