2019: Spoiling Fish as Food: Harmful Algal Blooms in Lake Victoria
In recent decades, marine and freshwater ecosystems worldwide are increasingly threatened by cyanobacteria-producing harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs). However, the impacts on people in developing nations and communities that depend on fisheries are not well understood. By assessing the risk-benefit tradeoffs of fish consumption across the food web and analyzing how fishers and consumers understand and respond to cyanoHABs in Africa’s Lake Victoria, this project will diagnose how changing ecosystems and behaviors translate into health and economic impacts, generating insights that will be relevant to many modern food systems facing environmental change.
[This project received an Office of Engagement Initiatives supplemental grant.]
Investigators: Kathryn Fiorella, Christopher Barrett, Peter McIntyre
(Photo Credit: Nikki McLeod)