The mosquito larvae habitats in the study area included ponds, puddles, swamps, and other sources of stagnant aquatic habitats.We examined three land cover scenarios: banana planation, forest, and indoor environment within typical local houses. The study was conducted from May to July in 2014, during the peak malaria transmission season in this area. The peak vector abundance was occurred from April to July each year. A forested area is defined as an area with >60% tree canopy coverage measured by ground shade area, and the vegetation was mainly subtropical evergreen broad-leaf rainforest with some deciduous trees in the canopy layer. The banana plantation was an area of banana plants planted two years prior to this study, and the canopy coverage was about 40% measured by ground shade area. Typical local houses have mixed brick and wood/ bamboo structures, with brick/concrete walls on the ground floor and wood/bamboo walls on the elevated floor. Windows are usually not screened. Residents usually spend the night upstairs but may take naps downstairs during noon time. The major vector mosquito species are Anopheles minimus and Anopheles sinensis . Approximately 5,000 Anopheline mosquito larvae were collected from local habitats and reared to adults in an insectary located in Nabang. To avoid using mosquitoes from one single female, we collected no more than 50 third- to fourth-instar larvae per habitat and reared them to adults under the same conditions. Emerged adults were identified to species or species complex using published morphological keys of Dong. Species-specific polymerase chain reactions were used for confirmatory identification of the species for a subset of adult mosquitoes. Newly emerged adults were used for life-table studies. Briefly, 50 female and 50 male adult mosquitoes within 24 h post-emergence were placed in a cylindrical cage of 20 cm in diameter and 30 cm in height. The cage was covered with nylon mesh to prevent the escaping of mosquitoes.

Four replicates were used for each of the three environments. In the forested environment and banana plantation,greenhouse benches the cages were suspended under a tree or banana leaf, 2 m above the ground. In the indoor environment, mosquito cages were hung in the middle of the living room, also 2 m above the ground. A plastic cap filled with water was hung directly above the cages to prevent ants from entering the cages. Plastic covers were placed on the top of the cages to protect cages from rains. Mosquitoes were provided with 10% sucrose and one mouse in each cage was used to blood feed mosquitoes for approximately 30 minutes every morning. The cages were examined daily for the numbers of surviving and dead mosquitoes, and dead mosquitoes were then removed. HOBO data loggers were placed inside the cages to record hourly temperature, relative humidity, and light intensity every min during the entire duration of the experiment. The HOBO data logger is a compact, battery-powered device equipped with an internal microprocessor, data storage, and one or more sensors, which can be used to track environmental temperature, relative humidity and light intensity. Life-table studies were conducted for An. sinensis and An. minimus, the two predominant malaria vector species in the study area.Data were analyzed to address the following questions: 1) Do land use and land cover significantly affect mosquito survivorship? We addressed this question using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis to determine the variation in daily survivorship among mosquitoes placed in different land use and land cover types, or between two sites of different elevations. 2) Do land use and land cover significantly affect the microclimatic conditions of local niches where adult mosquitoes were tested for survivorship? Daily average, minimum, and maximum temperatures and relative humidity were calculated from the hourly record. Analysis of variance with repeated measures was used to determine the differences in these microclimatic variables across different land use and land cover types.

The post hoc, Tukey’s honestly significant difference test was used to determine which groups significantly differed from each other. Tukey’s HSD procedure was developed specifically to account for multiple comparisons and maintains an experiment-wise error rate at the specified level. 3) Do mosquito species differ in their response to the microclimatic conditions in survivorship? Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to compare the two mosquito species under the same environmental conditions. A log-rank test was used to determine the significance of difference between two survival curves. All analyses were conducted using JMP statistical software.The present study identified a significant effect of land use and land cover on vector survivorship. Mosquitoes placed under indoor environment exhibited significantly higher survivorshipand longevity than banana plantation and forested environment. When mosquitoes were placed indoors in two sites differing in elevation, mosquitoes exhibited higher survivorship in sites with lower elevation. The effects of land use and land cover on mosquito survivorship likely resulted from differing microclimatic conditions among the habitats where adult mosquitoes were placed. Significantly higher mosquito survivorship was found in an indoor environment where mean daily temperature was 2°C higher than in the forested environment. This result on the impact of land use and land cover on mosquito survivorship was consistent with other studies on An. arabiensis and An. gambiae in African highlands, and An. darlingi in the Peruvian Amazon. The findings from this study have important implications for understanding malaria transmission and vector control in changing ecosystem. The developing world has been experiencing rapid land use and land cover changes. Deforestation is a major component of land use and land cover changes. Increased survivorship of adult mosquitoes in the indoor environment indeforested areas, as demonstrated in the present study, suggests that Indoor Residual Spraying and Insecticide-Treated Nets should be used for vector control to prevent indoor malaria transmission. In addition, deforestation could alter the microclimatic conditions of aquatic habitats and subsequently enhanced survival and development of larval mosquitoes as demonstrated in An. gambiae and An. arabiensis in Africa. Because vector survivorship and vector density are important components of vectorial capacity, deforested agricultural areas could exhibit dramatically higher vectorial capacity than forested areas. Therefore, deforested agricultural area can increase the risk of malaria transmission. There are several limitations in our study. First, although it is a conventional method, microcosm rearing of mosquitoes in cages for determination of vector survivorship was in a confined condition.

In field conditions, mosquitoes could hide and rest in moisture and dry habitats with microclimate conditions that are different from our cage condition. Because it is not feasible to track the mosquitoes under field conditions, determination of vector survivorship under field conditions has been indirect based on biomarkers such as ovarian structural evaluation, fluorescent pigment pteridine concentration, cuticular hydrocarbon, and gene expression. These methods have significant limitation in estimation reliability such as the age of mosquitoes beyond certain period cannot be identified, and sensitive to blood feeding and other physiological changes . Our microcosm rearing of mosquitoes is the most direct measurement of mosquito survivorship. Second, we fed mouse blood and sucrose sugar in our experiments. The food source to adult mosquitoes may affect survivorship as An. minimus prefers biting human. Because all mosquitoes were reared under the same food condition,plant benches the results on the impact of land use and land cover should be valid. It is important to assess the impact of land use and land cover on vector-borne disease transmission when an economic development plan that significantly alters land use and land cover is being formulated. This study suggested that deforestation is the worst scenario, re-cultivation with banana plantation or other economically valuable trees such as rubber trees could boost incomes and reduce malaria transmission risk at the same time. Therefore, government policy should encourage local farmers to re-cultivate on deforested land. The estimated daily survival rate for An. sinensis and An. minimus under different land use and land covers provides a valuable parameter in modeling vector population dynamics and malaria transmission risk.This dissertation is inspired by the small farms and farmers that I have had the pleasure of engaging with during my research over the past five years. The food system is widely recognized as being at a critical point, and in need of transformation to address environmental and social justice critiques. The farms and farmers of Lopez Island, Berkeley, Oakland, Alaska, and Vermont I have encountered through my research are on the front lines of working towards environmentally sustainable and socially just food production. They are growing food, educating consumers in their communities, and opening up their farms as spaces of civic engagement. Their work is the manifestation of theoretical frameworks and recommendations from academic literature and forms the foundation upon which to build a better food system for more people. And yet, there remains much complexity and uncertainty around how best to implement climate beneficial and socially just food systems, starting from a production standpoint, requiring farmer researcher partnerships to investigate and scale emerging best practices. Volunteering and working on farms have been a crucial observational research method across all of my projects and chapters. Being a participant-observer on diversified, small scale vegetable farms of all sizes and geographies, from Vermont to the San Juan Islands, Oakland to Alaska, has provided me with the evidence I need to understand and interpret scientific articles on climate-friendly food systems. These experiences allow me to connect larger datasets and trends to observable, tangible realities and processes, providing a necessary visual element to illustrate the pages of numbers and text. I could not have completed this dissertation without the love grown from the soil, without hands-on contact with the life forms and biodiversity that give us food, without the conversations with countless passionate urban and rural small scale farmers, doing what they do for the planet and the people rather than profit alone.

Food system challenges associated with the chemical, industrial production paradigm are increasingly intersecting with the challenges associated with global climate change. The need for change in the dominant food system is widely recognized, prompting scholars to pose questions such as “Can we feed the world without destroying it?” and describe competing visions in “the battle for the future of food” . Despite the often negative “crisis” framing of intersectional food and climate realities, there is an opportunity for proactive framing and empowering outcomes through the alternative paradigm of agroecological food systems. Positive framing, engagement and empowerment are key tenets of effective educational practices for a range of desired outcomes, including environmental, food, and climate literacy. This dissertation draws from both food systems scholarship and climate change education research to investigate synergistic food-climate interactions, focusing on small scale farms and gardens as centers for generating solutions and educating about innovations in food production that are simultaneously adaptive to and mitigating of climate change. Figure 1 shows a diagram of the food system based on commonly-represented elements , but with two modifications: 1) production at the center influencing activities in other spheres, and 2) education and policy/economic structures drawn in the surrounding “box” as important overarching considerations necessary for transitioning to an agroecological food system. This figure guides and frames the research to follow. Centering production, it reflects the data collection process behind this Ph.D. that started with working in the production space on Lopez Island, Washington.The two-directional arrow diagram offers a simplified educational model for teaching about the current impacts of food systems on greenhouse gas emissions, as well as exploring, through experiential learning, practices that reverse traditional impacts and, for example, re-store carbon in the soil. The arrows in Figure 2 are illustrative, and the “impacts” could be positive or negative. For example, currently the food system is adversely impacting the climate system through mechanized production powered by fossil fuels, fertilizer manufacture, soil tillage that releases soil carbon, dietary preferences, and other practices . The climate system is also adversely impacting the food system as warming temperatures drive changes in rainfall patterns, exacerbate droughts, disrupt food distribution channels, and create extremes to which current farming practices are not adapted to coping with . However, there is potential for the food system to have a more positive set of impacts on the climate system through regenerative agricultural production systems governed by principles of agroecology. The food system has potential to re-store atmospheric carbon and rehabilitate beneficial ecological functions through re-localization and appropriate management, eventually driving more positive climate impacts back to the food system.