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Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) larval ecology in natural habitats in the cold temperate Patagonia region of Argentina

BACKGROUND: Knowledge of immature habitats is an important focus for investigations of mosquito community ecology, and may improve our understanding of how environmental variables increase risk of mosquito-borne diseases by influencing the distributions and abundances of species. In Patagonia region...

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Autores principales: Grech, Marta G., Manzo, Luz M., Epele, Luis B., Laurito, Magdalena, Claverie, Alfredo Ñ., Ludueña-Almeida, Francisco F., Miserendino, María L., Almirón, Walter R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6505294/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31064397
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-019-3459-y
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author Grech, Marta G.
Manzo, Luz M.
Epele, Luis B.
Laurito, Magdalena
Claverie, Alfredo Ñ.
Ludueña-Almeida, Francisco F.
Miserendino, María L.
Almirón, Walter R.
author_facet Grech, Marta G.
Manzo, Luz M.
Epele, Luis B.
Laurito, Magdalena
Claverie, Alfredo Ñ.
Ludueña-Almeida, Francisco F.
Miserendino, María L.
Almirón, Walter R.
author_sort Grech, Marta G.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Knowledge of immature habitats is an important focus for investigations of mosquito community ecology, and may improve our understanding of how environmental variables increase risk of mosquito-borne diseases by influencing the distributions and abundances of species. In Patagonia region, where climatic and ecological factors could be only borderline suitable for mosquito development, relatively little is known about larval ecology. The present study focuses on associations of environmental conditions in natural aquatic habitats with abundances of mosquito species that have colonized such habitats in Patagonia. METHODS: We described the mosquito community composition within 26 natural temporary pools, and assessed the general relationships between environmental variables (pH, water temperature, conductivity, salinity, dissolved oxygen, aquatic plant cover and main nutrients) and larval abundances using redundancy analysis (RDA). Additionally, we compiled monthly climate data and vegetation indices for each larval habitat, and estimated the probability of presence for two of the most abundant species, describing through generalized linear models (GLM) the environmental, climatic and landscape variables-probability of occurrence relationships. RESULTS: Seven species belonging to the genera Culex and Aedes were identified, with Culex apicinus, Cx. acharistus and Aedes albifasciatus being the most abundant. Mean larval densities were low (6.8 ± 2.8 larvae/dip), and the highest species richness and larval densities were recorded in northern and central areas. Aedes albifasciatus, a species of sanitary importance, was widely distributed, being the only one collected south of the 45th parallel of S latitude. RDA indicated that aquatic conductivity, pH, water depth, dissolved oxygen, ammonia and soluble reactive phosphorous accounted for the main part of the variation in the species composition. According to GLMs, wind speed was the variable that best described the presence of Ae. albifasciatus, and the probability of finding this species was positively associated with high wind speed values. On the other hand, the EVI vegetation index was the only variable included in the Cx. apicinus model, whereby there was a great probability of presence in arid areas with lower EVI values. CONCLUSIONS: Our results enhance our knowledge of larval habitat ecology under the extreme environmental conditions of Patagonia and will guide future efforts to understand how multiple effects can affect mosquito ecology and public health at higher latitudes. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13071-019-3459-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-65052942019-05-10 Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) larval ecology in natural habitats in the cold temperate Patagonia region of Argentina Grech, Marta G. Manzo, Luz M. Epele, Luis B. Laurito, Magdalena Claverie, Alfredo Ñ. Ludueña-Almeida, Francisco F. Miserendino, María L. Almirón, Walter R. Parasit Vectors Research BACKGROUND: Knowledge of immature habitats is an important focus for investigations of mosquito community ecology, and may improve our understanding of how environmental variables increase risk of mosquito-borne diseases by influencing the distributions and abundances of species. In Patagonia region, where climatic and ecological factors could be only borderline suitable for mosquito development, relatively little is known about larval ecology. The present study focuses on associations of environmental conditions in natural aquatic habitats with abundances of mosquito species that have colonized such habitats in Patagonia. METHODS: We described the mosquito community composition within 26 natural temporary pools, and assessed the general relationships between environmental variables (pH, water temperature, conductivity, salinity, dissolved oxygen, aquatic plant cover and main nutrients) and larval abundances using redundancy analysis (RDA). Additionally, we compiled monthly climate data and vegetation indices for each larval habitat, and estimated the probability of presence for two of the most abundant species, describing through generalized linear models (GLM) the environmental, climatic and landscape variables-probability of occurrence relationships. RESULTS: Seven species belonging to the genera Culex and Aedes were identified, with Culex apicinus, Cx. acharistus and Aedes albifasciatus being the most abundant. Mean larval densities were low (6.8 ± 2.8 larvae/dip), and the highest species richness and larval densities were recorded in northern and central areas. Aedes albifasciatus, a species of sanitary importance, was widely distributed, being the only one collected south of the 45th parallel of S latitude. RDA indicated that aquatic conductivity, pH, water depth, dissolved oxygen, ammonia and soluble reactive phosphorous accounted for the main part of the variation in the species composition. According to GLMs, wind speed was the variable that best described the presence of Ae. albifasciatus, and the probability of finding this species was positively associated with high wind speed values. On the other hand, the EVI vegetation index was the only variable included in the Cx. apicinus model, whereby there was a great probability of presence in arid areas with lower EVI values. CONCLUSIONS: Our results enhance our knowledge of larval habitat ecology under the extreme environmental conditions of Patagonia and will guide future efforts to understand how multiple effects can affect mosquito ecology and public health at higher latitudes. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13071-019-3459-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2019-05-07 /pmc/articles/PMC6505294/ /pubmed/31064397 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-019-3459-y Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Grech, Marta G.
Manzo, Luz M.
Epele, Luis B.
Laurito, Magdalena
Claverie, Alfredo Ñ.
Ludueña-Almeida, Francisco F.
Miserendino, María L.
Almirón, Walter R.
Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) larval ecology in natural habitats in the cold temperate Patagonia region of Argentina
title Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) larval ecology in natural habitats in the cold temperate Patagonia region of Argentina
title_full Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) larval ecology in natural habitats in the cold temperate Patagonia region of Argentina
title_fullStr Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) larval ecology in natural habitats in the cold temperate Patagonia region of Argentina
title_full_unstemmed Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) larval ecology in natural habitats in the cold temperate Patagonia region of Argentina
title_short Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) larval ecology in natural habitats in the cold temperate Patagonia region of Argentina
title_sort mosquito (diptera: culicidae) larval ecology in natural habitats in the cold temperate patagonia region of argentina
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6505294/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31064397
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-019-3459-y
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