Cargando…

Habitat Segregation Patterns of Container Breeding Mosquitos: The Role of Urban Heat Islands, Vegetation Cover, and Income Disparity in Cemeteries of New Orleans

Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are important pathogen-carrying vectors that broadly exhibit similar habitat suitability, but that differ at fine spatial scales in terms of competitive advantage and tolerance to urban driven environmental parameters. This study evaluated how spatial and temporal...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: de Jesús Crespo, Rebeca, Rogers, Rachel Elba
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8751023/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35010505
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010245
_version_ 1784631593059483648
author de Jesús Crespo, Rebeca
Rogers, Rachel Elba
author_facet de Jesús Crespo, Rebeca
Rogers, Rachel Elba
author_sort de Jesús Crespo, Rebeca
collection PubMed
description Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are important pathogen-carrying vectors that broadly exhibit similar habitat suitability, but that differ at fine spatial scales in terms of competitive advantage and tolerance to urban driven environmental parameters. This study evaluated how spatial and temporal patterns drive the assemblages of these competing species in cemeteries of New Orleans, LA, applying indicators of climatic variability, vegetation, and heat that may drive habitat selection at multiple scales. We found that Ae. aegypti was well predicted by urban heat islands (UHI) at the cemetery scale and by canopy cover directly above the cemetery vase. As predicted, UHI positively correlate to Ae. aegypti, but contrary to predictions, Ae. aegypti, was more often found under the canopy of trees in high heat cemeteries. Ae. albopictus was most often found in low heat cemeteries, but this relationship was not statistically significant, and their overall abundances in the city were lower than Ae. aegypti. Culex quinquefasciatus, another important disease vector, was also an abundant mosquito species during the sampling year, but we found that it was temporally segregated from Aedes species, showing a negative association to the climatic variables of maximum and minimum temperature, and these factors positively correlated to its more direct competitor Ae. albopictus. These findings help us understand the mechanism by which these three important vectors segregate both spatially and temporally across the city. Our study found that UHI at the cemetery scale was highly predictive of Ae. aegypti and strongly correlated to income level, with low-income cemeteries having higher UHI levels. Therefore, the effect of excessive heat, and the proliferation of the highly competent mosquito vector, Ae. aegypti, may represent an unequal disease burden for low-income neighborhoods of New Orleans that should be explored further. Our study highlights the importance of considering socioeconomic aspects as indirectly shaping spatial segregation dynamics of urban mosquito species.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8751023
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-87510232022-01-12 Habitat Segregation Patterns of Container Breeding Mosquitos: The Role of Urban Heat Islands, Vegetation Cover, and Income Disparity in Cemeteries of New Orleans de Jesús Crespo, Rebeca Rogers, Rachel Elba Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are important pathogen-carrying vectors that broadly exhibit similar habitat suitability, but that differ at fine spatial scales in terms of competitive advantage and tolerance to urban driven environmental parameters. This study evaluated how spatial and temporal patterns drive the assemblages of these competing species in cemeteries of New Orleans, LA, applying indicators of climatic variability, vegetation, and heat that may drive habitat selection at multiple scales. We found that Ae. aegypti was well predicted by urban heat islands (UHI) at the cemetery scale and by canopy cover directly above the cemetery vase. As predicted, UHI positively correlate to Ae. aegypti, but contrary to predictions, Ae. aegypti, was more often found under the canopy of trees in high heat cemeteries. Ae. albopictus was most often found in low heat cemeteries, but this relationship was not statistically significant, and their overall abundances in the city were lower than Ae. aegypti. Culex quinquefasciatus, another important disease vector, was also an abundant mosquito species during the sampling year, but we found that it was temporally segregated from Aedes species, showing a negative association to the climatic variables of maximum and minimum temperature, and these factors positively correlated to its more direct competitor Ae. albopictus. These findings help us understand the mechanism by which these three important vectors segregate both spatially and temporally across the city. Our study found that UHI at the cemetery scale was highly predictive of Ae. aegypti and strongly correlated to income level, with low-income cemeteries having higher UHI levels. Therefore, the effect of excessive heat, and the proliferation of the highly competent mosquito vector, Ae. aegypti, may represent an unequal disease burden for low-income neighborhoods of New Orleans that should be explored further. Our study highlights the importance of considering socioeconomic aspects as indirectly shaping spatial segregation dynamics of urban mosquito species. MDPI 2021-12-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8751023/ /pubmed/35010505 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010245 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
de Jesús Crespo, Rebeca
Rogers, Rachel Elba
Habitat Segregation Patterns of Container Breeding Mosquitos: The Role of Urban Heat Islands, Vegetation Cover, and Income Disparity in Cemeteries of New Orleans
title Habitat Segregation Patterns of Container Breeding Mosquitos: The Role of Urban Heat Islands, Vegetation Cover, and Income Disparity in Cemeteries of New Orleans
title_full Habitat Segregation Patterns of Container Breeding Mosquitos: The Role of Urban Heat Islands, Vegetation Cover, and Income Disparity in Cemeteries of New Orleans
title_fullStr Habitat Segregation Patterns of Container Breeding Mosquitos: The Role of Urban Heat Islands, Vegetation Cover, and Income Disparity in Cemeteries of New Orleans
title_full_unstemmed Habitat Segregation Patterns of Container Breeding Mosquitos: The Role of Urban Heat Islands, Vegetation Cover, and Income Disparity in Cemeteries of New Orleans
title_short Habitat Segregation Patterns of Container Breeding Mosquitos: The Role of Urban Heat Islands, Vegetation Cover, and Income Disparity in Cemeteries of New Orleans
title_sort habitat segregation patterns of container breeding mosquitos: the role of urban heat islands, vegetation cover, and income disparity in cemeteries of new orleans
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8751023/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35010505
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010245
work_keys_str_mv AT dejesuscresporebeca habitatsegregationpatternsofcontainerbreedingmosquitostheroleofurbanheatislandsvegetationcoverandincomedisparityincemeteriesofneworleans
AT rogersrachelelba habitatsegregationpatternsofcontainerbreedingmosquitostheroleofurbanheatislandsvegetationcoverandincomedisparityincemeteriesofneworleans