Dryland Salinity and Ecosystem Distress Syndrome: Human Health Implications

Clearing of native vegetation for agriculture has left 1.047 million hectares of southwest Western Australia affected by dryland salinity, and this area may expand up to a further 1.7–3.4 million hectares if trends continue. Ecosystems in saline-affected regions display many of the classic characteristics of Ecosystem Distress Syndrome, one outcome of which has not yet been investigated in relation to dryland salinity: adverse human health implications. This article seeks to review existing information and identify potential adverse human health effects. Three key potential impacts on human health resulting from dryland salinity are identified: wind-borne dust and respiratory health; altered ecology of the mosquito-borne disease Ross River virus; and mental health consequences of salinity-induced environmental degradation. Given the predicted increase in extent and severity of dryland salinity over coming decades, adverse outcomes of salinity are likely to be further exacerbated, including those related to human health. There is a clear need to investigate the issues discussed in this review and also to identify other potential adverse health effects of dryland salinity. Investigations must be multidisciplinary to sufficiently examine the broad scope of these issues. The relationship between human health and salinity may also be relevant beyond Australia in other countries where secondary soil salinization is occurring.

[1]  H. Regier,et al.  Ecosystem Behavior Under Stress , 1985, The American Naturalist.

[2]  I. Marshall,et al.  An investigation of the potential of Aedes camptorhynchus (Thom.) as a vector of Ross River virus. , 1986, The Australian journal of experimental biology and medical science.

[3]  M. Qadir,et al.  Degradation processes and nutrient constraints in sodic soils , 2002 .

[4]  N. Gratz,et al.  Emerging and resurging vector-borne diseases. , 1999, Annual review of entomology.

[5]  David W Smith,et al.  A major outbreak of Ross River virus infection in the south-west of Western Australia and the Perth metropolitan area , 1992 .

[6]  Sang Pyo Lee,et al.  Effects of ambient particulate matter on peak expiratory flow rates and respiratory symptoms of asthmatics during Asian dust periods in Korea , 2005, Respirology.

[7]  T. Zobeck,et al.  The PM10and PM2·5 dust generation potential of soils/sediments in the Southern Aral Sea Basin, Uzbekistan , 2003 .

[8]  N O Nielsen,et al.  Ecosystem approaches to human health. , 2001, Cadernos de saude publica.

[9]  N. Pettit,et al.  Effects of salinisation on riparian plant communities in experimental catchments on the Collie River, Western Australia , 2003 .

[10]  R. Russell.  Arboviruses and their vectors in Australia: an update on the ecology and epidemiology of some mosquito-borne arboviruses , 1995 .

[11]  Felicia Keesing,et al.  The ecology of infectious disease: Effects of host diversity and community composition on Lyme disease risk , 2003, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[12]  D. Rapport.  Epidemiology and Ecosystem Health: Natural Bridges , 1999 .

[13]  D. Gubler.  The global emergence/resurgence of arboviral diseases as public health problems. , 2002, Archives of medical research.

[14]  A. T. D. Travassos da Rosa,et al.  Inadequate management of natural ecosystem in the Brazilian Amazon region results in the emergence and reemergence of arboviruses Gestão imprópria do ecossistema natural na Amazônia brasileira resulta na emergência , 2001 .

[15]  P. Horwitz,et al.  Nowhere to hide: Awareness and perceptions of environmental change, and their influence on relationships with place , 2005 .

[16]  S. Rutherford,et al.  Characteristics of rural dust events shown to impact on asthma severity in Brisbane, Australia , 1999, International journal of biometeorology.

[17]  S. Kisely,et al.  Barriers to managing mental health in Western Australia. , 2003, The Australian journal of rural health.

[18]  Russell J. Shiel,et al.  Occurrence of aquatic invertebrates of the wheatbelt region of Western Australia in relation to salinity , 2005, Hydrobiologia.

[19]  J. V. D. Vijver,et al.  Psychological stress and marginalization as indicators of human carrying capacity in deforesting areas , 1996 .

[20]  M. Dosemeci,et al.  Risk of stomach cancer associated with 12 workplace hazards: analysis of death certificates from 24 states of the United States with the aid of job exposure matrices. , 1999, Occupational and environmental medicine.

[21]  R. Shiel,et al.  Aquatic invertebrate assemblages of wetlands and rivers in the wheatbelt region of Western Australia , 2004 .

[22]  J. Patz,et al.  Impact of regional climate change on human health , 2005, Nature.

[23]  C. Soskolne,et al.  Health Consequences of Drought on the Canadian Prairies , 2004, EcoHealth.

[24]  Richard J George Dr,et al.  South west hydrological information package : understanding and managing hydrological issues on agricultural land in the south west of Western Australia , 2001 .

[25]  J. Chang-Claude,et al.  Occupation and bladder cancer among men in Western Europe , 2003, Cancer Causes & Control.

[26]  S. O'Hara,et al.  Exposure to airborne dust contaminated with pesticide in the Aral Sea region , 2000, The Lancet.

[27]  A. Bener,et al.  Genetic and environmental factors associated with asthma. , 1996, Human biology.

[28]  F. V. D. van de Vijver,et al.  Psychological Consequences of Environmental Degradation , 1996, Journal of health psychology.

[29]  P. Epstein.  Emerging diseases and ecosystem instability: new threats to public health. , 1995, American journal of public health.

[30]  G. Lawrence,et al.  Predictors of stress among Australian farmers , 1996 .

[31]  A. H. Zakri,et al.  Ecosystems and human well-being - Synthesis: A Report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment , 2005 .

[32]  M. Lindsay,et al.  An outbreak of Ross River virus disease in Southwestern Australia. , 1996, Emerging infectious diseases.

[33]  F. McKenzie.  Population Decline in Non-Metropolitan Australia: Impacts and Policy Implications , 1994 .

[34]  R. Hobbs.  The wheatbelt of Western Australia , 2003 .

[35]  Human resilience and environmental degradation : the eco-cultural link in the Sahel , 2003 .

[36]  K. Nordstrom,et al.  Wind erosion from cropland in the USA: a review of problems, solutions and prospects , 2004 .

[37]  P. Pattison,et al.  Changing places: the impact of rural restructuring on mental health in Australia. , 2004, Health & place.

[38]  M. Schenker.  Exposures and health effects from inorganic agricultural dusts. , 2000, Environmental health perspectives.

[39]  David A. Taylor.  Dust in the wind. , 2002 .

[40]  D. Connell,et al.  Chlorohydrocarbon pesticides in the Australian marine environment after banning in the period from the 1970s to 1980s. , 2002, Marine pollution bulletin.

[41]  S. Briggs,et al.  Impacts of salinity on biodiversity—clear understanding or muddy confusion? , 2003 .

[42]  M. Lindsay,et al.  Isolation of Murray Valley encephalitis and Ross River viruses from Aedes normanensis (Diptera: Culicidae) in Western Australia. , 1989, Journal of medical entomology.

[43]  M. Tonts,et al.  Rural restructuring and social sustainability: some reflections on the Western Australian wheatbelt , 1995 .

[44]  R. Kane,et al.  Depressive symptomatology in rural Western Australia: Prevalence, severity, and risk and protective factors , 2000 .

[45]  E. V. Haaften,et al.  Dealing with extreme environmental degradation: stress and marginalization of Sahel dwellers , 1999, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

[46]  L J Fragar,et al.  Farming and Mental Health Problems and Mental Illness , 2005, The International journal of social psychiatry.

[47]  R. Kookana,et al.  Degradation rates of eight pesticides in surface and subsurface soils under laboratory and field conditions , 1998 .

[48]  G. Battista,et al.  Cohort mortality study of rock salt workers in Italy. , 1994, American journal of industrial medicine.

[49]  R. George,et al.  Modern and palaeogeographic trends in the salinisation of the Western Australian Wheatbelt , 2006 .

[50]  D. Norris,et al.  Mosquito-borne Diseases as a Consequence of Land Use Change , 2004, EcoHealth.

[51]  Richard S. Ostfeld,et al.  COMMUNITY DISASSEMBLY, BIODIVERSITY LOSS, AND THE EROSION OF AN ECOSYSTEM SERVICE , 2003 .

[52]  W. D. Williams.  Salinisation: A major threat to water resources in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world , 1999 .

[53]  R. Russell,et al.  The Culicidae of the Australasian Region. Volume I. , 1980 .

[54]  R. Sutherst,et al.  Global Change and Human Vulnerability to Vector-Borne Diseases , 2004, Clinical Microbiology Reviews.

[55]  Pierre Horwitz,et al.  Biodiversity, Endemism, Sense of Place, and Public Health: Inter‐relationships for Australian Inland Aquatic Systems , 2001 .

[56]  H. Cochrane,et al.  Sodic soils in Western Australia , 1994 .

[57]  Richard George,et al.  Dryland salinity in south-western Australia: its origins, remedies, and future research directions , 2002 .

[58]  Fons J. R. Vijver,et al.  Psychological Consequences of Environmental Degradation. , 1996 .

[59]  J. Dosman,et al.  Respiratory health effects of alkali dust in residents near desiccated Old Wives Lake. , 1992, Archives of environmental health.

[60]  D. Molyneux,et al.  Common themes in changing vector-borne disease scenarios. , 2003, Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

[61]  David W Smith,et al.  Surveillance of arboviruses in mosquitoes from the southwest of Western Australia between 2000 and 2004 , 2005 .

[62]  D. Rapport.  The Health of Ecology and the Ecology of Health , 2002 .

[63]  T. Temel.  Malaria from the gap: need for cross-sector co-operation in Azerbaijan , 2004 .

[64]  S. Hales,et al.  Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Health Synthesis , 2005 .

[65]  M. Lindsay,et al.  Ross River virus isolations from mosquitoes in arid regions of Western Australia: implication of vertical transmission as a means of persistence of the virus. , 1993, The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene.

[66]  T. Temel.  Malaria from the Gap: Need for Cross-Sector Cooperation in Azerbaijan , 2004, Acta tropica.

[67]  P. Stolley.  Planetary Overload: Global Environmental Change and the Health of the Human Species , 1996 .

[68]  A. Pinder,et al.  Salinisation and prospects for biodiversity in rivers and wetlands of south-west Western Australia , 2003 .

[69]  Richard J. Hobbs,et al.  Ecological consequences of altered hydrological regimes in fragmented ecosystems in southern Australia: Impacts and possible management responses , 2002 .

[70]  John B. Silver,et al.  Mosquito Ecology: Field Sampling Methods , 2008 .

[71]  G. Robins,et al.  Understanding suicide in Australian farmers , 2005, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

[72]  D. Macdonald,et al.  Infectious disease: Inextricable linkages between human and ecosystem health , 2006, Biological Conservation.

[73]  Richard J. Hobbs,et al.  Effects of landscape fragmentation on ecosystem processes in the Western Australian wheatbelt , 1993 .

[74]  Xiping Xu,et al.  Respiratory health hazards in agriculture. , 1998, American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine.

[75]  R. Russell.  Ross River virus: ecology and distribution. , 2002, Annual review of entomology.

[76]  P. Rengasamy.  World salinization with emphasis on Australia. , 2006, Journal of experimental botany.

[77]  G. Albrecht.  'Solastalgia'. A New Concept in Health and Identity , 2005 .

[78]  M. Adams,et al.  Nutrient cycling and growth in forest ecosystems of south western Australia: Relevance to agricultural landscapes , 1999, Agroforestry Systems.

[79]  D. Pannell.  Farm, food and resource issues: politics and dryland salinity , 2005 .

[80]  J. Field,et al.  Dryland salinity, regolith and biodiversity: problems and opportunties formitigation and remediation. , 2005 .

[81]  Q. Beresford,et al.  The salinity crisis , 2001 .

[82]  N. McKenzie,et al.  Effect of salinity on small, ground-dwelling animals in the Western Australian wheatbelt , 2003 .

[83]  Jonathan A. Patz,et al.  Unhealthy Landscapes: Policy Recommendations on Land Use Change and Infectious Disease Emergence , 2004, Environmental health perspectives.

[84]  M. Lindsay,et al.  Dry-season Mosquito Breeding Associated with Irrigation in the Northeast Kimberley Region of Western Australia: Potential Impact on Mosquito-borne Disease Transmission , 2004, EcoHealth.

[85]  M. Lindsay,et al.  Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) fauna in inland areas of south-west Western Australia , 2007 .