Dataset Information

The vertical stratification of potential bridge vectors of mosquito-borne viruses in a central Amazonian forest bordering Manaus, Brazil.

ABSTRACT: The emergence of Zika virus (ZIKV) in Latin America brought to the fore longstanding concerns that forests bordering urban areas may provide a gateway for arbovirus spillback from humans to wildlife. To bridge urban and sylvatic transmission cycles, mosquitoes must co-occur with both humans and potential wildlife hosts, such as monkeys, in space and time. We deployed BG-Sentinel traps at heights of 0, 5, 10, and 15 m in trees in a rainforest reserve bordering Manaus, Brazil, to characterize the vertical stratification of mosquitoes and their associations with microclimate and to identify potential bridge vectors. Haemagogus janthinomys and Sabethes chloropterus, two known flavivirus vectors, showed significant stratification, occurring most frequently above the ground. Psorophora amazonica, a poorly studied anthropophilic species of unknown vector status, showed no stratification and was the most abundant species at all heights sampled. High temperatures and low humidity are common features of forest edges and microclimate analyses revealed negative associations between minimum relative humidity, which was inversely correlated with maximum temperature, and the occurrence of Haemagogus and Sabethes mosquitoes. In this reserve, human habitations border the forest while tamarin and capuchin monkeys are also common to edge habitats, creating opportunities for the spillback of mosquito-borne viruses.

SUBMITTER: Hendy A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7589505 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The vertical stratification of potential bridge vectors of mosquito-borne viruses in a central Amazonian forest bordering Manaus, Brazil.

Hendy Adam A Hernandez-Acosta Eduardo E Valério Danielle D Mendonça Claudia C Costa Edson Rodrigues ER Júnior José Tenaçol Andes JTA Assunção Flamarion Prado FP Scarpassa Vera Margarete VM Gordo Marcelo M Fé Nelson Ferreira NF Buenemann Michaela M de Lacerda Marcus Vinícius Guimarães MVG Hanley Kathryn A KA Vasilakis Nikos N

Scientific reports 20201026 1

The emergence of Zika virus (ZIKV) in Latin America brought to the fore longstanding concerns that forests bordering urban areas may provide a gateway for arbovirus spillback from humans to wildlife. To bridge urban and sylvatic transmission cycles, mosquitoes must co-occur with both humans and potential wildlife hosts, such as monkeys, in space and time. We deployed BG-Sentinel traps at heights of 0, 5, 10, and 15 m in trees in a rainforest reserve bordering Manaus, Brazil, to characterize the ...[more]

PMID: 33106507

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Project description:The global burden of vector-borne diseases accounts for more than 17% of infectious diseases in humans. Rapid global expansion of previously obscure pathogens, such as Zika and chikungunya viruses in recent years highlights the importance of understanding how anthropogenic changes influence emergence and spillover of vector-borne diseases. Deforestation has been identified as one anthropogenic change that influences vector-borne disease prevalence, although contrasting pictures of the effects of deforestation on vector-borne disease transmission have been reported. These conflicting findings are likely attributable to the inherent complexity of vector-borne disease systems, which involve diverse groups of vectors, hosts and pathogens, depending on geography. The current study represents a quantitative exploration of the link between deforestation and mosquitoes, the most important common constituents of vector-borne disease systems. Analysis of data compiled from published field studies for 87 mosquito species from 12 countries revealed that about half of the species (52.9%) were associated with deforested habitats. Of these species that are favored by deforestation, a much larger percentage (56.5%) are confirmed vectors of human pathogens, compared to those negatively impacted by deforestation (27.5%). Moreover, species that serve as vectors of multiple human pathogens were all favored by deforestation, including Anopheles bancroftii, Anopheles darlingi, Anopheles farauti, Anopheles funestus s.l., Anopheles gambiae s.l., Anopheles subpictus, Aedes aegypti, Aedes vigilax, Culex annulirostris, and Culex quinquefasciatus. Our quantitative analysis of vector and non-vector species, demonstrates that the net effect of deforestation favors mosquitoes that serve as vectors of human disease, while the obverse holds true for non-vectors species. These results begin to unify our understanding of the relationship between deforestation and vector mosquitoes, an important step in quantifying how land use change, specifically deforestation, affects human risk of vector-borne disease.

Project description:Mosquito-borne Zika virus (ZIKV) was recently introduced into the Americas and now has the potential to spill back into a sylvatic cycle in the region, likely involving non-human primates and Aedes, Haemagogus, and Sabethes species mosquitoes. We investigated potential routes of mosquito-borne virus exchange between urban and sylvatic transmission cycles by characterizing mosquito communities in three urban forest parks that receive heavy traffic from both humans and monkeys in Manaus, Brazil. Parks were stratified by both distance from the urban-forest edge (0, 50, 100, and 500 m) and relative Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (low, medium, or high), and mosquitoes were sampled at randomly selected sites within each stratum using BG-Sentinel traps. Additionally, temperature, relative humidity, and other environmental data were collected at each site. A total of 1,172 mosquitoes were collected from 184 sites sampled in 2018, of which 98 sites were resampled in 2019. Using park as the unit of replication (i.e. 3 replicates per sampling stratum), a two-way ANOVA showed no effect of distance or NDVI on the mean number of identified species (P > 0.05 for both comparisons) or on species diversity as measured by the Shannon-Wiener diversity index (P > 0.10 for both comparisons). However, the Morisita overlap index revealed that mosquito communities changed substantially with increasing distance from edge, with communities at 0 m and 500 m being quite distinct. Aedes albopictus and Ae. aegypti penetrated at least 100 m into the forest, while forest specialists including Haemagogus janthinomys, Sabethes glaucodaemon, and Sa. tridentatus were detected in low numbers within 100 m from the forest edge. Trichoprosopon digitatum and Psorophora amazonica were among the most abundant species collected, and both showed distributions extending from the forest edge to its interior. Our results show overlapping distributions of urban and forest mosquitoes at park edges, which highlights the risk of arbovirus exchange via multiple bridge vectors in Brazilian urban forest parks. These parks may also provide refugia for both Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti from mosquito control programs.

Project description:BackgroundClimate change is increasing the dispersion of mosquitoes and the spread of viruses of which some mosquitoes are the main vectors. In Quebec, the surveillance and management of endemic mosquito-borne diseases, such as West Nile virus or Eastern equine encephalitis, could be improved by mapping the areas of risk supporting vector populations. However, there is currently no active tool tailored to Quebec that can predict mosquito population abundances, and we propose, with this work, to help fill this gap.MethodsFour species of mosquitos were studied in this project for the period from 2003 to 2016 for the southern part of the province of Quebec: Aedes vexans (VEX), Coquillettidia perturbans (CQP), Culex pipiens-restuans group (CPR) and Ochlerotatus stimulans group (SMG) species. We used a negative binomial regression approach, including a spatial component, to model the abundances of each species or species group as a function of meteorological and land-cover variables. We tested several sets of variables combination, regional and local scale variables for landcover and different lag period for the day of capture for weather variables, to finally select one best model for each species.ResultsModels selected showed the importance of the spatial component, independently of the environmental variables, at the larger spatial scale. In these models, the most important land-cover predictors that favored CQP and VEX were 'forest', and 'agriculture' (for VEX only). Land-cover 'urban' had negative impact on SMG and CQP. The weather conditions on the trapping day and previous weather conditions summarized over 30 or 90 days were preferred over a shorter period of seven days, suggesting current and long-term previous weather conditions effects on mosquito abundance.ConclusionsThe strength of the spatial component highlights the difficulties in modelling the abundance of mosquito species and the model selection shows the importance of selecting the right environmental predictors, especially when choosing the temporal and spatial scale of these variables. Climate and landscape variables were important for each species or species group, suggesting it is possible to consider their use in predicting long-term spatial variationsin the abundance of mosquitoes potentially harmful to public health in southern Quebec.

Project description:Edge effects, abiotic and biotic changes associated with habitat boundaries, are key drivers of community change in fragmented landscapes. Their influence is heavily modulated by matrix composition. With over half of the world's tropical forests predicted to become forest edge by the end of the century, it is paramount that conservationists gain a better understanding of how tropical biota is impacted by edge gradients. Bats comprise a large fraction of tropical mammalian fauna and are demonstrably sensitive to habitat modification. Yet, knowledge about how bat assemblages are affected by edge effects remains scarce. Capitalizing on a whole-ecosystem manipulation in the Central Amazon, the aims of this study were to i) assess the consequences of edge effects for twelve aerial insectivorous bat species across the interface of primary and secondary forest, and ii) investigate if the activity levels of these species differed between the understory and canopy and if they were modulated by distance from the edge. Acoustic surveys were conducted along four 2-km transects, each traversing equal parts of primary and ca. 30-year-old secondary forest. Five models were used to assess the changes in the relative activity of forest specialists (three species), flexible forest foragers (three species), and edge foragers (six species). Modelling results revealed limited evidence of edge effects, except for forest specialists in the understory. No significant differences in activity were found between the secondary or primary forest but almost all species exhibited pronounced vertical stratification. Previously defined bat guilds appear to hold here as our study highlights that forest bats are more edge-sensitive than edge foraging bats. The absence of pronounced edge effects and the comparable activity levels between primary and old secondary forests indicates that old secondary forest can help ameliorate the consequences of fragmentation on tropical aerial insectivorous bats.

Project description:Knowledge about herbivores and their parasitoids in forest canopies remains limited, despite their diversity and ecological importance. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that shape the herbivore-parasitoid community structure, particularly the effect of vertical gradient. We investigated a quantitative community dataset of exposed and semiconcealed leaf-chewing larvae and their parasitoids along a vertical canopy gradient in a temperate forest. We sampled target insects using an elevated work platform in a 0.2 ha broadleaf deciduous forest plot in the Czech Republic. We analyzed the effect of vertical position among three canopy levels (first [lowest], second [middle], and third [highest]) and tree species on community descriptors (density, diversity, and parasitism rate) and food web structure. We also analyzed vertical patterns in density and parasitism rate between exposed and semiconcealed hosts, and the vertical preference of the most abundant parasitoid taxa in relation to their host specificity. Tree species was an important determinant of all community descriptors and food web structure. Insect density and diversity varied with the vertical gradient, but was only significant for hosts. Both host guilds were most abundant in the second level, but only the density of exposed hosts declined in the third level. Parasitism rate decreased from the first to third level. The overall parasitism rate did not differ between guilds, but semiconcealed hosts suffered lower parasitism in the third level. Less host-specific taxa (Ichneumonidae, Braconidae) operated more frequently lower in the canopy, whereas more host-specific Tachinidae followed their host distribution. The most host-specific Chalcidoidea preferred the third level. Vertical stratification of insect density, diversity, and parasitism rate was most pronounced in the tallest tree species. Therefore, our study contradicts the general paradigm of weak arthropod stratification in temperate forest canopies. However, in the network structure, vertical variation might be superseded by variation among tree species.

Dataset Information

The vertical stratification of potential bridge vectors of mosquito-borne viruses in a central Amazonian forest bordering Manaus, Brazil.

Publications

The vertical stratification of potential bridge vectors of mosquito-borne viruses in a central Amazonian forest bordering Manaus, Brazil.

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