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

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/education
The 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.