Costa Rica mosquito community species occurrence and site environmental data, July - August 2017

Land use change is an important driver of both biodiversity loss and zoonotic disease transmission in tropical countryside landscapes. Developing solutions for protecting biodiversity, public health, and livelihoods in working landscapes requires understanding the spatial scales at which habitat characteristics such as land cover shape biodiversity, especially for arthropods that transmit pathogens. A growing body of evidence shows that species richness for many taxa correlates with tree cover at small spatial scales of <100 m, indicating that local tree cover management is a promising conservation tool. To investigate whether mosquito species richness, community composition, and presence of specific disease vector species respond to tree cover—and if so, whether at spatial scales similar to other taxa—we surveyed mosquito communities along a tree cover gradient and across agricultural, residential, and forested land uses in rural southern Costa Rica. We found that tree cover was both positively correlated with mosquito species richness and negatively correlated with the presence of the common invasive dengue vector Aedes albopictus, particularly at small spatial scales of 80 – 200m. Beyond tree cover, land use type predicted community composition and Ae. albopictus presence, but not species richness. The results suggest that preservation and expansion of tree cover at local scales can protect biodiversity for a wide range of taxa and also confer protection against disease vector occurrence.

土地利用变化是热带乡村景观中生物多样性丧失与人畜共患病传播的关键驱动因子。在生产性景观中制定保护生物多样性、保障公共卫生与民生生计的解决方案，需要厘清土地覆被等生境特征塑造生物多样性的空间尺度，尤其针对传播病原的节肢动物而言。越来越多的研究证据表明，众多生物类群的物种丰富度在小于100米的小空间尺度上与树木覆被呈显著相关，这提示本地树木覆被管理是一项颇具前景的保护手段。为探究蚊虫物种丰富度、群落组成以及特定疾病媒介物种的存在与否是否对树木覆被产生响应，以及若存在响应，其响应的空间尺度是否与其他生物类群一致，我们在哥斯达黎加南部乡村地区，沿树木覆被梯度并覆盖农业、居住与森林等土地利用类型的区域开展了蚊虫群落调查。研究结果显示，树木覆被与蚊虫物种丰富度呈正相关，而与常见入侵性登革热媒介白纹伊蚊（Aedes albopictus）的存在呈负相关，这一效应在80至200米的小空间尺度上尤为显著。除树木覆被外，土地利用类型可预测蚊虫群落组成与白纹伊蚊的存在情况，但无法预测物种丰富度。本研究结果表明，在本地尺度上保护并扩大树木覆被，不仅能够保护众多生物类群的生物多样性，还可降低疾病媒介物种的出现概率。