Implication of human landscape transformation on mosquito populations

Anthropogenic landscape transformation has an important effect on vector-borne pathogen transmission, especially under the perspective of an increase in their distribution and incidence in recent decades. Drivers of the increase of vector-borne diseases are attributed to global change including, but not limited to, habitat alteration and simplification of habitat structures such as increase of urbanised areas, alteration of trophic interactions, the introduction of invasive exotic species, or climate change. However, the effects of urbanisation on mosquito communities are still only poorly known and there is relatively little understanding of how human-induced rapid global change is impacting the dynamics of vectors and vector-borne diseases. Urbanisation is especially significant in the case of mosquitoes, one of the most nuisance animals associated with human activities with a high medical relevancy. For most of this vector species, the abundance and species richness are considered lower in urban areas than rural or natural ones, mainly due to anthropogenic activities that produce substantial ecological disturbances that can affect animal communities at both levels of vertebrate and invertebrate organisms. However, containerbreeding species, like introduced Aedes exotic mosquitoes, or group of species as the Culex pipiens complex, seem to benefit from specific urban features where there is an abundance of artificial oviposition sites. Moreover, some forest mosquito species, such as Aedes japonicus, may also spread into urban areas due to the expansion of peri-urban habitat into suburban growth areas that increasingly invade more transitional and disturbed rural areas, as for example in allotment gardens or cemeteries. To sum up, studies on mosquito populations from urban areas and surrounding anthropized environments, suggest an overall community-level response to urbanisation. Furthermore, research considering both the land cover heterogeneity of the urban environment and the assemblage of insect species are essential to develop adequate strategies against emerging vector-borne diseases. This chapter focuses on summarising recent works that investigate the effects of urbanisation on insect vector community ecology.