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）提供重要的产品和利益。然而，这往往以极大的环境代价为代价（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、疾病宿主和媒介的影响，或暴露于极端气候。本项目的总体目标是在西非冈比亚快速发展的环境中，从农业角度对环境变化（气候、土地利用、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。与撒哈拉以南非洲的大部分地区和其他地方的发展中地区一样，在这里，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，可归因于环境因素的传染病负担很高，但解决得很差。该项目的具体目标是将农业土地利用强度梯度的生态完整性指标与人类媒介传播疾病风险联系起来。该项目由三个部分组成：i)横截面环境评估，用于描述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。这将包括实地调查（土地、水、植物、动物、化学）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）的组合。ii)综合而言，学生将在每个地点进行密集采样，以量化传染病媒介（如蚊子、白蛉、蜱虫）的存在和多样性；（三）第三个组成部分将整合（一）和（二），采用创新的分析和建模方法，解决当地病媒多样性的驱动因素，确定其与生态完整性的联系，并检验与农业土地利用变化（例如，采用可持续农业集约化方法）与病媒传播疾病风险有关的假设。组成部分i)和ii)将在西非冈比亚与冈比亚MRC单位合作进行。现场采样将是密集的，在整个项目过程中至少需要大约6个月的时间，以便在湿季和旱季进行采样。该学生将被鼓励在冈比亚的pi实验室（行星健康）度过相当一部分博士学位，其余时间在伦敦Silwood Park的co-I实验室（森林生态和保护）度过。有关如何向我们申请的更多信息，请访问：https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/educationThe该项目将放在一个更大的项目范围内，重点关注农业发展对健康的净影响及其对环境和社会变化的贡献。该学生将与另一名博士生合作，后者正在量化整个站点网络的人与动物接触和人畜共患疾病风险。可能与本项目相关的其他平行项目将侧重于人类健康的其他成果，包括通过与饮食多样性联系的营养和通过与当地小气候联系的热暴露。

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.