British container breeding mosquitoes: the impact of urbanisation and climate change on community composition and phenology.

The proliferation of artificial container habitats in urban areas has benefitted urban adaptable mosquito species globally. In areas where mosquitoes transmit viruses and parasites, it can promote vector population productivity and fuel mosquito-borne disease outbreaks. In Britain, storage of water...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Susannah Townroe, Amanda Callaghan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0095325&type=printable
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850191343758868480
author Susannah Townroe
Amanda Callaghan
author_facet Susannah Townroe
Amanda Callaghan
author_sort Susannah Townroe
collection DOAJ
description The proliferation of artificial container habitats in urban areas has benefitted urban adaptable mosquito species globally. In areas where mosquitoes transmit viruses and parasites, it can promote vector population productivity and fuel mosquito-borne disease outbreaks. In Britain, storage of water in garden water butts is increasing, potentially expanding mosquito larval habitats and influencing population dynamics and mosquito-human contact. Here we show that the community composition, abundance and phenology of mosquitoes breeding in experimental water butt containers were influenced by urbanisation. Mosquitoes in urban containers were less species-rich but present in significantly higher densities (100.4±21.3) per container than those in rural containers (77.7±15.1). Urban containers were dominated by Culex pipiens (a potential vector of West Nile Virus [WNV]) and appear to be increasingly exploited by Anopheles plumbeus (a human-biting potential WNV and malaria vector). Culex phenology was influenced by urban land use type, with peaks in larval abundances occurring earlier in urban than rural containers. Among other factors, this was associated with an urban heat island effect which raised urban air and water temperatures by 0.9°C and 1.2°C respectively. Further increases in domestic water storage, particularly in urban areas, in combination with climate changes will likely alter mosquito population dynamics in the UK.
format Article
id doaj-art-647be1ae9dbe49ed8fd352c9b677cbc6
institution OA Journals
issn 1932-6203
language English
publishDate 2014-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj-art-647be1ae9dbe49ed8fd352c9b677cbc62025-08-20T02:14:57ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0194e9532510.1371/journal.pone.0095325British container breeding mosquitoes: the impact of urbanisation and climate change on community composition and phenology.Susannah TownroeAmanda CallaghanThe proliferation of artificial container habitats in urban areas has benefitted urban adaptable mosquito species globally. In areas where mosquitoes transmit viruses and parasites, it can promote vector population productivity and fuel mosquito-borne disease outbreaks. In Britain, storage of water in garden water butts is increasing, potentially expanding mosquito larval habitats and influencing population dynamics and mosquito-human contact. Here we show that the community composition, abundance and phenology of mosquitoes breeding in experimental water butt containers were influenced by urbanisation. Mosquitoes in urban containers were less species-rich but present in significantly higher densities (100.4±21.3) per container than those in rural containers (77.7±15.1). Urban containers were dominated by Culex pipiens (a potential vector of West Nile Virus [WNV]) and appear to be increasingly exploited by Anopheles plumbeus (a human-biting potential WNV and malaria vector). Culex phenology was influenced by urban land use type, with peaks in larval abundances occurring earlier in urban than rural containers. Among other factors, this was associated with an urban heat island effect which raised urban air and water temperatures by 0.9°C and 1.2°C respectively. Further increases in domestic water storage, particularly in urban areas, in combination with climate changes will likely alter mosquito population dynamics in the UK.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0095325&type=printable
spellingShingle Susannah Townroe
Amanda Callaghan
British container breeding mosquitoes: the impact of urbanisation and climate change on community composition and phenology.
PLoS ONE
title British container breeding mosquitoes: the impact of urbanisation and climate change on community composition and phenology.
title_full British container breeding mosquitoes: the impact of urbanisation and climate change on community composition and phenology.
title_fullStr British container breeding mosquitoes: the impact of urbanisation and climate change on community composition and phenology.
title_full_unstemmed British container breeding mosquitoes: the impact of urbanisation and climate change on community composition and phenology.
title_short British container breeding mosquitoes: the impact of urbanisation and climate change on community composition and phenology.
title_sort british container breeding mosquitoes the impact of urbanisation and climate change on community composition and phenology
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0095325&type=printable
work_keys_str_mv AT susannahtownroe britishcontainerbreedingmosquitoestheimpactofurbanisationandclimatechangeoncommunitycompositionandphenology
AT amandacallaghan britishcontainerbreedingmosquitoestheimpactofurbanisationandclimatechangeoncommunitycompositionandphenology