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Abstract
Deforestation precipitates spillover of enzootic, vector-borne viruses into humans, but specific mechanisms for this effect have rarely been investigated. Expansion of oil palm cultivation is a major driver of deforestation. Here, we demonstrate that mosquito abundance decreased over ten stepwise distances from interior forest into conterminous palm plantations in Borneo. Diversity in interior plantation narrowed to one species, Aedes albopictus, a potential bridge vector for spillover of multiple viruses. A. albopictus was equally abundant across all distances in forests, forest-plantation edge, and plantations, while A. niveus, a known vector of sylvatic dengue virus, was found only in forests. A. albopictus collections were significantly female-biased in plantation but not in edge or forest. Our data reveal that the likelihood of encountering any mosquito is greater in interior forest and edge than plantation, while the likelihood of encountering A. albopictus is equivalent across the gradient sampled from interior plantation to interior forest.
Highlights
Novel pathogens, enzootic, vector-borne viruses, have emerged at an increasing rate in recent decades (Taylor et al 2001, Huang et al 2019)
We sampled mosquitoes at ten different distances moving from interior plantation to interior forest
These distance categories captured significant variation in microclimate and vegetation: temperature increased and humidity decreased moving from forest to oil palm plantation, as shown in previous studies (Hardwick et al 2015, Jucker et al 2018) and leaf litter depth increased moving from plantations into forests
Summary
Enzootic, vector-borne viruses, have emerged at an increasing rate in recent decades (Taylor et al 2001, Huang et al 2019). Microclimate varies substantially between forests and plantations, as temperature is generally higher and more variable (Luskin and Potts 2011, Hardwick et al 2015, Manoli et al 2018) and humidity is lower in plantations than forests (Hardwick et al 2015, Manoli et al 2018), and plantations vary more in ground cover (Luskin et al 2017), evapotranspiration, and water runoff than forests (Manoli et al 2018) All of these differences could impact the life history, vector competence, and mobility of arthropod vectors (Reisen 2010, Kramer 2016).
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