Predicting Culex pipiens/restuans population dynamics by interval lagged weather data

BACKGROUND: Culex pipiens/restuans mosquitoes are important vectors for a variety of arthropod borne viral infections. In this study, the associations between 20 years of mosquito capture data and the time lagged environmental quantities daytime length, temperature, precipitation, relative humidity and wind speed were used to generate a predictive model for the population dynamics of this vector species. METHODS: Mosquito population in the study area was represented by averaged time series of mosquitos counts captured at 6 sites in Cook County (Illinois, USA). Cross-correlation maps (CCMs) were compiled to investigate the association between mosquito abundances and environmental quantities. The results obtained from the CCMs were incorporated into a Poisson regression to generate a predictive model. To optimize the predictive model the time lags obtained from the CCMs were adjusted using a genetic algorithm. RESULTS: CCMs for weekly data showed a highly positive correlation of mosquito abundances with daytime length 4 to 5 weeks prior to capture (quantified by a Spearman rank order correlation of r(S) = 0.898) and with temperature during 2 weeks prior to capture (r(S) = 0.870). Maximal negative correlations were found for wind speed averaged over 3 week prior to capture (r(S) = −0.621). Cx. pipiens/restuans population dynamics was predicted by integrating the CCM results in Poisson regression models. They were used to simulate the average seasonal cycle of the mosquito abundance. Verification with observations resulted in a correlation of r(S) = 0.899 for daily and r(S) = 0.917 for weekly data. Applying the optimized models to the entire 20-years time series also resulted in a suitable fit with r(S) = 0.876 for daily and r(S) = 0.899 for weekly data. CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrates the application of interval lagged weather data to predict mosquito abundances with a feasible accuracy, especially when related to weekly Cx. pipiens/restuans populations.