title: New baseline environmental assessment of mosquito ecology in northern Haiti during increased urbanization.
abstract: The catastrophic 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, led to the large-scale displacement of over 2.3 million people, resulting in rapid and unplanned urbanization in northern Haiti. This study evaluated the impact of this unplanned urbanization on mosquito ecology and vector-borne diseases by assessing land use and change patterns. Land-use classification and change detection were carried out on remotely sensed images of the area for 2010 and 2013. Change detection identified areas that went from agricultural, forest, or bare-land pre-earthquake to newly developed and urbanized areas post-earthquake. Areas to be sampled for mosquito larvae were subsequently identified. Mosquito collections comprised five genera and ten species, with the most abundant species being Culex quinquefasciatus 35% (304/876), Aedes albopictus 27% (238/876), and Aedes aegypti 20% (174/876). All three species were more prevalent in urbanized and newly urbanized areas. Anopheles albimanus, the predominate malaria vector, accounted for less than 1% (8/876) of the collection. A set of spectral indices derived from the recently launched Landsat 8 satellite was used as covariates in a species distribution model. The indices were used to produce probability surfaces maps depicting the likelihood of presence of the three most abundant species within 30 m pixels. Our findings suggest that the rapid urbanization following the 2010 earthquake has increased the amount of area with suitable habitats for urban mosquitoes, likely influencing mosquito ecology and posing a major risk of introducing and establishing emerging vector-borne diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, U.S.A.. DSamson@med.miami.edu.
authors.forename: Dayana M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Samson
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33124, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Reginald S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Archer
authors.affiliation: Leonard and Jayne Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, Miami, FL 33124, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Temitope O
authors.initials: TO
authors.lastname: Alimi
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Kristopher L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Arheart
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria/Entomology Branch, Atlanta, GA, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Impoinvil
authors.affiliation: National Malaria Control Program, Ministry of Public Health and Population, Port au Prince, Haiti.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Oscar
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33124, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Douglas O
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Fuller
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Whitney A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Qualls
mesh_terms: D000330:Aedes / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000502:physiology*; D003465:Culex / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006205:Haiti; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000502:physiology*; D007814:Larva; D008288:Malaria / Q000635:transmission; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D058998:Remote Sensing Technology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014507:Urbanization
keywords: Aedes albopictus; Haiti; Remote sensing; earthquake; mosquitoes; rapid urbanization