CHARACTERIZATION OF MOSQUITO HABITATS IN BLACK HAWK AND BUCHANAN COUNTIES, IA: GROUND AND REMOTE SENSING FOR ESTIMATION OF DISEASE RISK

  Jeff R. Fisher, Sara L. Sheeley, Forest I. Isbell, Keri A. Leymaster, Edward J. Brown, Ramanathan Sugumaran and David R. Mercer

   Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies may assist in the remote identification of productive mosquito developmental sites.  This information could be used to predict the risk of mosquito-transmitted disease in northeastern Iowa.  We combined ground surveys of larval developmental sites and light trapping of adults with remotely sensed information from Black Hawk County, IA, to construct a GIS model for mosquito species most likely to vector disease, particularly West Nile virus.  From ground sensing, mosquito number correlated significantly with bacterial numbers and phosphate concentration in aquatic developmental sites.  From the GIS model, putative vector species were densest along stream corridors and wetlands.  Therefore, contamination of water may increase mosquito production and residents of Black Hawk County may be exposed to high numbers of mosquitoes near residential and recreational areas.  Our GIS model will be tested in Buchanan County using light trap-captured adults. 

This research was sponsored, in part, by Merck Pharmaceuticals, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, the Iowa Space Grant Consortium and the Iowa State Water Resources Research Institute.