Abstract
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.
Highlights
Urbanisation is a major cause of modification to the landscape
The results of this study show that artificial freshwater habitats such as garden water butts support diverse mosquito populations, with significantly higher larval densities but reduced species richness in urban gardens compared to rural gardens
Rural areas are likely to contain a greater diversity of natural larval habitats that support more species-rich and diverse populations which can utilise but not necessarily rely on containers for breeding [24]
Summary
Urbanisation is a major cause of modification to the landscape. The UK continues to experience urban expansion with 80% of the population in England living in urban areas [1]. Water butts collect rain from roof guttering along with vegetation, animal detritus and heterotrophic microorganisms (i.e., bacteria, fungi, protozoans), providing both a habitat and food resource for mosquito larvae [9,10]. They are designed to store water and their height precludes colonization by vertebrate and some invertebrate predators of mosquito larvae (e.g. fish, amphibians, dragonflies) [11]. This, in combination with the UHI effect, which can increase the temperature in large UK cities by as much as 8.9uC compared to surrounding rural areas [13], may favour increased mosquito larval production in urban habitats. We discuss how urbanisation of the UK landscape influences various aspects of mosquito biology and the implications of future land use and climate change scenarios on mosquito population dynamics
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