title: The Interactive Role of Immature Stage Competition, Cohort Overlap, and Resource Limitation on the Population Viability of the Treehole Mosquito Aedes triseriatus (Diptera: Culicidae).
abstract: The size and success of epidemiologically significant adult mosquito populations are inherently tied to the conditions of the aquatic habitat in which juvenile stages grow until eclosion. While resource competition and quality are well-established controls to juvenile growth and survival, the implications to overall population rates of increase are less understood due to the large sample sizes needed to parameterize population models for all five juvenile life stages under multiple environmental and demographic conditions. Here, we present the results of >4,300 trials of wild-caught Aedes triseriatus (Say, 1823) larvae and pupae reared under varying resource quantity crossed by the presence or absence of competition within a single cohort as well as multiple overlapping cohorts. Demographic projection was used to make predictions of the realized growth rates of simulated Ae. triseriatus populations across the range of potential Ae. triseriatus fecundity. Further, to inform control efforts on juvenile habitat, we constructed a stochastic simulation to estimate the rates of successful emergence from habitats under different resource regimes and levels of cohort overlap. We found that while Ae. triseriatus populations were robust to low resource levels and competition within a cohort, the combination of these stressors with multiple cohort overlap led to self-limitation or complete collapse of mosquito populations. Despite this importance of intraspecific competition to population viability, the stochastic simulation revealed only a modest self-limitation of adult emergence, with the clear implication that high-resource habitats are a higher value control target.
authors.affiliation: W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, Hickory Corners, MI 49060 (hanlypat@msu.edu; haaseama@msu.edu), hanlypat@msu.edu.|W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, Hickory Corners, MI 49060 (hanlypat@msu.edu; haaseama@msu.edu).|W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, Hickory Corners, MI 49060 (hanlypat@msu.edu; haaseama@msu.edu).
authors.forename: Patrick J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Hanly
authors.affiliation: W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, Hickory Corners, MI 49060 (hanlypat@msu.edu; haaseama@msu.edu).|W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, Hickory Corners, MI 49060 (hanlypat@msu.edu; haaseama@msu.edu).
authors.forename: Amanda T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Haase
mesh_terms: D000330:Aedes / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D007814:Larva / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011679:Pupa / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Aedes triseriatus; intrastage competition; matrix modeling; population dynamics; resource limitation