Involving citizen scientists in monitoring arthropod vectors of human and zoonotic diseases: The case of Mosquito Alert in Italy

Virgillito, C.; Longo, E.; De Marco, C.M.; Serini, P.; Zucchelli, M.V.; Montarsi, F.; Severini, F.; Rosà, R.; Da Re, D.; Filipponi, F.; Manica, M.; Palmer, J.; Bartumeus, F.; della Torre, A.; Caputo, B.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174847

Science of The Total Environment

2024

DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174847

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Involving citizen scientists in monitoring arthropod vectors of human and zoonotic diseases: The case of Mosquito Alert in Italy

C. Virgillito,

E. Longo,

C.M. De Marco

et al.

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Cited by 2 publications

References 21 publications

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Identifying ecological factors mediating the spread of three invasive mosquito species: citizen science informed prediction

Garamszegi,

Soltész,

Szentiványi

et al. 2024

J Pest Sci

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Due to their potential role in pathogen transmission, invasive mosquitoes pose considerable threats to human and animal health. Several studies have identified the most important ecological drivers mediating the establishment and spread of key mosquito species (e.g., Aedes aegypti, and Ae. albopictus), and made predictions for future distribution. We evaluated the effect of an exhaustive list of environmental predictors on the distribution of three invasive species in Hungary (Ae. albopictus, Ae. japonicus, and Ae. koreicus) by using the same standards for data collection based on citizen science observations. Current distribution maps of these species were generated from a 5-year survey, then were compared with various predictor maps reflecting climate, habitat type, food supply, traffic, and interspecific competition by using a boosted regression trees approach that resulted in a subset of variables with the strongest impact. The best predictor sets were used to predict the probability of occurrence of the focal species for the whole country, and these predictions based on citizen science were evaluated against the results of an independent recent field surveillance. We uncovered species-specific patterns and found that different predictor sets were selected for the three different species, and only predictions for Ae. albopictus could be validated with direct trapping data. Therefore, citizen science informed distribution maps can be used to identify ecological predictors that determine the spread of invasive mosquitoes, and to estimate risk based on the predicted distribution in the case of Ae. albopictus.

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Identifying ecological factors mediating the spread of three invasive mosquito species: citizen science informed prediction

Garamszegi,

Soltész,

Szentiványi

et al. 2024

J Pest Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Citizen Science and Multimedia Didactic Resources: Knowledge of Mosquito-Borne Diseases in an Urban Area of Southwestern Colombia

Bedoya-Rodríguez,

Guevara-Fletcher,

Pelegrin

2024

TropicalMed

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Citizen science resources have had great relevance in community educational intervention, fostering interest in ecological research projects. This study investigated the influence of the application of multimedia didactic resources focused on citizen science and analysis of sociodemographic variables to improve the levels of ecological knowledge about mosquito-borne diseases. For this, a probabilistic sample of 172 participants from an urban sector in southwestern Colombia was selected. A multimedia didactic material was designed for the educational intervention and evaluated by means of pretest and posttest. To assess whether the educational intervention was statistically significant, the data were processed with statistical inference to determine the influence of various variables (gender, age, marital status, schooling, and occupation) on each person’s ecological knowledge. The findings showed a significant increase in the knowledge levels of the participants. The marital status variable (married and cohabiting) significantly influenced ecological knowledge. These participants are more likely to obtain high knowledge, associated with the prevention of their family environment. This study demonstrated that multimedia didactic strategies are an important factor to take into account in the structuring of environmental education and citizen science projects. For future research, it is suggested to deepen the relationship between sociodemographic variables and ecological knowledge.

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Involving citizen scientists in monitoring arthropod vectors of human and zoonotic diseases: The case of Mosquito Alert in Italy

Cited by 2 publications

References 21 publications

Identifying ecological factors mediating the spread of three invasive mosquito species: citizen science informed prediction

Identifying ecological factors mediating the spread of three invasive mosquito species: citizen science informed prediction

Citizen Science and Multimedia Didactic Resources: Knowledge of Mosquito-Borne Diseases in an Urban Area of Southwestern Colombia

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