New baseline environmental assessment of mosquito ecology in northern Haiti during increased urbanization

Abstract

The catastrophic 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, led to the large-scale displacement of over 2.3 million people, resulting in rapid and unplanned urbanization in northern Haiti. This study evaluated the impact of this unplanned urbanization on mosquito ecology and vector-borne diseases by assessing land use and change patterns. Land-use classification and change detection were carried out on remotely sensed images of the area for 2010 and 2013. Change detection identified areas that went from agricultural, forest, or bare-land pre-earthquake to newly developed and urbanized areas post-earthquake. Areas to be sampled for mosquito larvae were subsequently identified. Mosquito collections comprised five genera and ten species, with the most abundant species being Culex quinquefasciatus 35% (304/876), Aedes albopictus 27% (238/876), and Aedes aegypti 20% (174/876). All three species were more prevalent in urbanized and newly urbanized areas. Anopheles albimanus, the predominate malaria vector, accounted for less than 1% (8/876) of the collection. A set of spectral indices derived from the recently launched Landsat 8 satellite was used as covariates in a species distribution model. The indices were used to produce probability surfaces maps depicting the likelihood of presence of the three most abundant species within 30 m pixels. Our findings suggest that the rapid urbanization following the 2010 earthquake has increased the amount of area with suitable habitats for urban mosquitoes, likely influencing mosquito ecology and posing a major risk of introducing and establishing emerging vector-borne diseases. Journal of Vector Ecology 40 (1): 46-58. 2015.

Implications of guppy (Poecilia reticulata) life‐history phenotype for mosquito control

“…Anopheles , Culex , and Haemagogus are known to transmit disease in certain geographic areas, including malaria, West Nile virus, and yellow fever (Cardoso et al., ; Centres for Disease Control and Prevention; World Health Organization). Aedes , a vector for Zika and dengue fever, was notably absent from our mesocosms despite a tendency to readily colonize a variety of man‐made habitats (Harrington, Ponlawat, Edman, Scott, & Vermeylen, ; Samson et al., ). It is thought that Aedes thrive in urban and suburban areas (Davis, Kline, & Kaufman, ; Tsuzuki, Huynh, Luu, Tsunoda, & Takagi, ), but it is unclear what threshold of urbanization promotes Aedes proliferation.…”

“…The very characteristics that make guppies good candidates for introduction, such as live birth and sperm storage, also make them successful ecosystem invaders. Deacon et al (2011) Aedes, a vector for Zika and dengue fever, was notably absent from our mesocosms despite a tendency to readily colonize a variety of manmade habitats (Harrington, Ponlawat, Edman, Scott, & Vermeylen, 2008;Samson et al, 2015). It is thought that Aedes thrive in urban and suburban areas (Davis, Kline, & Kaufman, 2016;Tsuzuki, Huynh, Luu, Tsunoda, & Takagi, 2009), but it is unclear what threshold of urbanization promotes Aedes proliferation.…”

Mapping of Aedes albopictus Abundance at a Local Scale in Italy

“…Furthermore, several studies conducted worldwide on land use effect demonstrated a strong affinity of Ae. albopictus for urbanized and anthropized environments [10,16,19,22,23].…”

“…Previous studies have shown that urban areas, open agricultural areas, and forested areas affected Ae. albopictus presence [10,16,23,41].…”

“…albopictus distribution, even though Ae. albopictus population is strongly associated with urbanized areas [4,10,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23].…”