Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 May 16;12(1):8060.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-11898-y.

Island biogeography and human practices drive ecological connectivity in mosquito species richness in the Lakshadweep Archipelago

Muhammad Nihad P P  1 , Rohini P D  1   2 , Sutharsan G  1   2 , Anagha Ajith P K  1 , Sumitha M K  2 , Shanmuga Priya A  2 , Rahul P  2 , Sasikumar V  2 , Shaibal Dasgupta  1 , Jayalakshmi Krishnan  2 , Farah Ishtiaq  3
Affiliations

Island biogeography and human practices drive ecological connectivity in mosquito species richness in the Lakshadweep Archipelago

Muhammad Nihad P P et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Mosquitoes are globally distributed and adapted to a broad range of environmental conditions. As obligatory hosts of many infectious pathogens, mosquito abundance and distribution are primarily determined by the presence and quality of larval habitats. To understand the dynamics and productivity of larval habitats in changing island environments, we conducted a four-month mosquito survey across ten inhabited islands in the Lakshadweep archipelago. Using fine-resolution larval habitat mapping, we recorded 7890 mosquitoes representing 13 species and 7 genera. Of these, four species comprised 95% of the total collections-Aedes albopictus (Stegomyia) was the dominant species followed by Armigeres subalbatus, Culex quinquefasciatus and Malaya genurostris. We found larval species richness was positively associated with the island area and mosquito larval richness (Chao1 estimator) was higher in artificial habitats than in natural habitats. Furthermore, mosquito species composition did not deteriorate with distance between islands. Mosquito abundance by species was associated with microclimatic variables-pH and temperature. We detected co-existence of multiple species at a micro-habitat level with no evidence of interactions like competition or predation. Our study analyzed and identified the most productive larval habitats -discarded plastic container and plastic drums contributing to high larval indices predicting dengue epidemic across the Lakshadweep islands. Our data highlight the need to devise vector control strategies by removal of human-induced plastic pollution (household waste) which is a critical driver of disease risk.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mosquito larval survey sites shown in coloured dots on ten Lakshadweep Islands. The mean and 95% confidence interval bar show prevalence of artificial and natural habitats on each island. Maps produced using leaflet package in R.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Observed and Chao 1 estimated mosquito richness in natural and artificial larval habitats on each island. The bars represent standard error.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Larval diversity in natural and artificial habitats as estimated by Shannon Wiener diversity index.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Species-area relationship between log area and mosquito richness found in the Lakshadweep Islands.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Distance-decay relationship between mosquito species across the Lakshadweep islands.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Relationship between microclimate variables and mosquito larvae abundance (count) by species and habitat type across the Lakshadweep islands.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus infestation indices across islands. The error bars represent 95% confidence interval.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. MacArthur RH, Wilson EO. The theory of island biogeography. Princeton University Press; 1967.
    1. MacArthur RH, Wilson EO. An equilibrium theory of insular zoogeography. Evolution. 1968;17:373–387. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1963.tb03295.x. - DOI
    1. Caraballo H. Emergency department management of mosquito-borne illness: malaria, dengue, and west nile virus. Emerg. Med. Pract. 2014;16(5):1–2. - PubMed
    1. Rejmánková, E., Grieco, J., Achee, N., Roberts, DR. Ecology of larval habitats. In: Manguin S, editor. Anopheles mosquitoes: new insights into malaria vectors 9th. InTech; Rijeka: pp. 397–446. (2013).
    1. Sharma M, Quader S, Guttal V, Isvaran K. The enemy of my enemy: multiple interacting selection pressures lead to unexpected anti-predator responses. Oecologia. 2020;192(1):1–12. doi: 10.1007/s00442-019-04552-4. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types