Buzzing Homes: Using Citizen Science Data to Explore the Effects of Urbanization on Indoor Mosquito Communities.

Nadja Pernat,Helge Kampen,Jonathan M Jeschke,Doreen Werner

doi:10.3390/insects12050374

Abstract

Simple SummaryMany mosquito species can transmit pathogens and may pose a risk to human health. With increasing urbanization and alteration of natural habitats, the composition of mosquito communities is changing, with some species thriving particularly well in and adjacent to human settlements. In the present study, indoor mosquito collections submitted to the citizen science project ‘Mückenatlas’ were used to investigate the composition, abundance, and diversity of species of different urbanization levels, and to detect preferences for less or more urbanized areas. We found that species richness and diversity decreases with increasing urbanization, and some important vector species are captured most frequently in densely urbanized regions. Our results highlight the importance of long-term mosquito monitoring to learn how these vectors respond to habitat change caused by humans. Only with sufficient knowledge about the ecology of mosquitoes can we assess risks, plan counter strategies, and take action.Urbanization has been associated with a loss of overall biodiversity and a simultaneous increase in the abundance of a few species that thrive in urban habitats, such as highly adaptable mosquito vectors. To better understand how mosquito communities differ between levels of urbanization, we analyzed mosquito samples from inside private homes submitted to the citizen science project ‘Mückenatlas’. Applying two urbanization indicators based on soil sealing and human population density, we compared species composition and diversity at, and preferences towards, different urbanization levels. Species composition between groups of lowest and highest levels of urbanization differed significantly, which was presumably caused by reduced species richness and the dominance of synanthropic mosquito species in urban areas. The genus Anopheles was frequently submitted from areas with a low degree of urbanization, Aedes with a moderate degree, and Culex and Culiseta with a high degree of urbanization. Making use of citizen science data, this first study of indoor mosquito diversity in Germany demonstrated a simplification of communities with increasing urbanization. The dominance of vector-competent species in urban areas poses a potential risk of epidemics of mosquito-borne diseases that can only be contained by a permanent monitoring of mosquitoes and by acquiring a deeper knowledge about how anthropogenic activities affect vector ecology.

Highlights

With continuing outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases in Mediterranean countries and recent cases of West Nile fever as far north as Germany, the management of mosquito vector species has become an important political and scientific issue throughout Europe [1].Many countries have implemented mosquito-monitoring programs based on various methodological approaches
The uneven distribution across the groups according to population density is striking, with over two thirds of the entries coming from grid cells with to 5000 inhabitants, which is not representative of the latest share of degree of urbanization classification (DEGURBA) classes in Germany (34% rural, 42% peri-urban, 24% urban [57])
Our results demonstrate that citizen science is an appropriate method in the process of analyzing the indoor biome and, that the ‘Mückenatlas’ opportunistic data collection confirms existing knowledge and enables completely new insights into urban mosquito ecology

Summary

Introduction

With continuing outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases in Mediterranean countries and recent cases of West Nile fever as far north as Germany, the management of mosquito vector species has become an important political and scientific issue throughout Europe [1].Many countries have implemented mosquito-monitoring programs based on various methodological approaches. An increase in population densities of those mosquito species is expected because they thrive in urban environments and in the vicinity of humans due to a selective advantage, e.g., the capability of breeding in artificial containers or the preference for human blood hosts. These include species of the genera Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex, some of which have invasive potential and can transmit a variety of pathogens, such as the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus [7]

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