Ecologies of Risk: Malaria and Settler Landscape Transformation in 19th-Century Ontario.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

This study examines how settler-driven environmental change shaped malaria transmission and mortality in 19th-century southern Ontario. It aimed to understand the biosocial and ecological conditions that sustained endemic malaria in a temperate, colonial context.

Materials and methods

We analyzed 2702 deaths attributed to probable malaria from 1831 to 1900 using civil, cemetery, parish, and municipal records. Each record was coded for age, sex, occupation, region, and season of death. To assess environmental influences, we incorporated monthly temperature and rainfall data from Toronto as a regional climate proxy. We examined demographic and spatial patterns at multiple scales, including towns, settlement type (urban/rural), and regional groupings, alongside tempo

SUBMITTER: Cooke A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12801096 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature