1. Epidemiological investigations of neglected tropical diseases including schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiases and protozoan infections.
2. Assessment of wildlife diseases and other zoonotic infections.
3. Assessing of ecosystems and organisms’ vulnerability and resilience to climate change, aquatic ecosystems biomonitoring and assessment
4. Examination and identification of disease-causing organisms and assessment of the status and distribution of diseases.
5. Application of geospatial tools such as GIS and remote sensing (RS) in the assessment and management of disease burden, risks and transmission.

Ecotoxicology
Entomology
Epidemiology
Infectious Diseases
Malacology
Mammalogy
Medical Parasitology
Parasitology
Public Health and Environmental Health
Zoology
Tropical Medicine

Title: Optimized Use of Bugs for Bioassessment and Biomonitoring of Aquatic Ecosystems Health in Urban Settings
Stream water pollution is a major issue contributing to health problems in many urban areas particularly in developing countries. To mitigate pollution and its impact on public health, sustained assessment of stream water quality is essential. Analyzing aquatic organisms is a sustainable tool for determining levels of pollution in urban streams as information obtained can be used to manage incidences of health conditions resulting from polluted water or environment. This study will analyze macroinvertebrate assemblages in Tanzania to establish relationship between types and abundance of organisms and water quality. The method will be optimized to make it most effective, cheap and logistically feasible in comparison to other biological techniques used to study pollution levels and accumulation. The study will use kick sampling and leaf pack techniques to study types and abundance of macroinvertebrates and pollution level in streams. Variation in variables of macroinvertebrate types and abundance will be analyzed through the use of biological index for categorizing organism present and water pollution levels. The study’s findings will contribute to the broader field of environmental assessment and monitoring of aquatic systems and facilitate effective and sustainable environmental management strategies for launching timely and suitable mitigation measures.

bioassessment, water pollution, aquatic ecosystem health, macroinvertebrates, bioindex, kick sampling

I am looking for partners who are interested in the use of biondicators as sustainable method for assessment and biomonitoring of aquatic ecosystems health in urban settings