Sustainable Oil Palm farming in Borneo: Uptake and effects of heavy metals and pesticides in the wildlife of the Oil palm plantation affected landscap

The student will work to understand and map the importance chemicals have on wildlife in intensified agricultural zones. The Lower Kinabatangan Floodplain (working from Danau Girang Field Centre, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo) provides an ideal and iconic case study as a patchwork forest landscape influenced by oil palm plantations' fertiliser and pesticide use. This project aims to develop further understanding of chemical pollution resulting from oil palm, the level of effect on local wildlife and geographical reach into surrounding rainforest and rivers.

The student will collate and measure chemicals levels in soils and waters and the diets, droppings, hair and body fluids (blood and urine) from capture/release animals and tissues from carcasses (e.g. road kills) of wildlife species. These values will be combined with environmental fate and biouptake models to build an understanding of the pollution footprint in the landscape, the potential risks to wildlife and he dependence of such risk on organism ecology, life stage, diet and habitat.

Based on this initial integration and combining multiple stressor and mixture modelling with chemical fate and exposure models, the student will establish the likely impacts of various oil palm systems on wildlife conservation. Recommendations will be discussed and worked upon with local oil palm smallholders and local stakeholders like Wild Asia.

The novelty of this project is taking a mixture and multiple stressors approach chemicals impact assessment in an oil palm producing area. The student will learn to assess environmental fate, uptake and risk of chemicals, use multi-stressor models, design monitoring schemes, undertake sampling and chemical chemistry and will have opportunities to apply scientific findings in a policy context. Being a full member of the UK CEH Pollution Science Area, visits to Cardiff and the Borneo field centre, plus secondments at JNCC, will provide a unique experience working with researchers and stakeholders in different sectors and disciplines.

The supervisory team is designed to support the student in the tasks of combining the knowledge of existing wildlife toxicology and monitoring with policy application (JNCC) and conservation ecology knowledge of the Lower Kinabatangan Floodplain.