title: Community structure of ground-water breeding mosquitoes driven by land use in a temperate wetland of Argentina.
abstract: Wetlands have traditionally been associated with harbouring mosquitoes, but the effect of the land use on their communities has not been thoroughly studied. We characterized the ground-water habitat availability and mosquito species richness and composition during a year-round survey in the predominant land uses (domestic areas, Salicaceae plantations, secondary forests and Scirpus giganteus marshes) of the Paraná Lower Delta, Argentina. Each land use presented a characteristically different number, composition, and diversity of ground-water habitats, and harboured mosquitoes throughout the year. Nearly half of the 824 habitats examined, consisting of 10 types, were positive for immatures. We identified 23 species from 7 genera, with Culex and Ochlerotatus species accounting for 81.7% of all samples. Species richness was significantly lower in marshes than in the other land uses. Some species such as Culex dolosus s.l. and Ochlerotatus crinifer exhibited no habitat-type restrictions, while Uranotaenia nataliae and Mansonia indubitans presented specific habitat requirements. Our results strongly suggest that land use within temperate wetlands drives species richness and composition of ground-water mosquito communities through larval habitat availability.
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Ecología de Reservorios y Vectores de Parásitos, Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. victoriacardo@ege.fcen.uba.ar
authors.forename: María Victoria
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Cardo
authors.forename: Vezzani
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Darío
authors.forename: Carbajo Aníbal
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Eduardo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001118:Argentina; D044822:Biodiversity; D009033:Culicidae / Q000145:classification* / Q000254:growth & development*; D017753:Ecosystem; D006802:Human Activities; D014867:Water / Q000469:parasitology*; D053833:Wetlands
chemical_list: D014867:Water