Community structure of ground-water breeding mosquitoes driven by land use in a temperate wetland of Argentina

Abstract

Wetlands have traditionally been associated with harbouring mosquitoes, but the effect of the land use on their communities has not been thoroughly studied. We characterized the ground-water habitat availability and mosquito species richness and composition during a year-round survey in the predominant land uses (domestic areas, Salicaceae plantations, secondary forests and Scirpus giganteus marshes) of the Paraná Lower Delta, Argentina. Each land use presented a characteristically different number, composition, and diversity of ground-water habitats, and harboured mosquitoes throughout the year. Nearly half of the 824 habitats examined, consisting of 10 types, were positive for immatures. We identified 23 species from 7 genera, with Culex and Ochlerotatus species accounting for 81.7% of all samples. Species richness was significantly lower in marshes than in the other land uses. Some species such as Culex dolosus s.l. and Ochlerotatus crinifer exhibited no habitat-type restrictions, while Uranotaenia nataliae and Mansonia indubitans presented specific habitat requirements. Our results strongly suggest that land use within temperate wetlands drives species richness and composition of ground-water mosquito communities through larval habitat availability.