Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Spatial and temporal patterns of coexistence between competing Aedes mosquitoes in urban Florida

  • Community Ecology - Original Paper
  • Published:
Oecologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Understanding mechanisms fostering coexistence between invasive and resident species is important in predicting ecological, economic, or health impacts of invasive species. The mosquito Aedes aegypti coexists at some urban sites in southeastern United States with invasive Aedes albopictus, which is often superior in interspecific competition. We tested predictions for three hypotheses of species coexistence: seasonal condition-specific competition, aggregation among individual water-filled containers, and colonization–competition tradeoff across spatially partitioned habitat patches (cemeteries) that have high densities of containers. We measured spatial and temporal patterns of abundance for both species among water-filled resident cemetery vases and experimentally positioned standard cemetery vases and ovitraps in metropolitan Tampa, Florida. Consistent with the seasonal condition-specific competition hypothesis, abundances of both species in resident and standard cemetery vases were higher early in the wet season (June) versus late in the wet season (September), but the proportional increase of A. albopictus was greater than that of A. aegypti, presumably due to higher dry-season egg mortality and strong wet-season competitive superiority of larval A. albopictus. Spatial partitioning was not evident among cemeteries, a result inconsistent with the colonization-competition tradeoff hypothesis, but both species were highly independently aggregated among standard cemetery vases and ovitraps, which is consistent with the aggregation hypothesis. Densities of A. aegypti but not A. albopictus differed among land use categories, with A. aegypti more abundant in ovitraps in residential areas compared to industrial and commercial areas. Spatial partitioning among land use types probably results from effects of land use on conditions in both terrestrial and aquatic-container environments. These results suggest that both temporal and spatial variation may contribute to local coexistence between these Aedes in urban areas.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Amarasekare P, Nisbet RM (2001) Spatial heterogeneity, source-sink dynamics, and the local coexistence of competing species. Am Nat 158:572–584

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Barrera R (1996) Competition and resistance to starvation in larvae of container-inhabiting Aedes mosquitoes. Ecol Entomol 21:117–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barrera R, Amador M, Clark GG (2006) Ecological factors influencing Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) productivity in artificial containers in Salinas, Puerto Rico. J Med Entomol 43:484–492

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Braks MAH, Honorio NA, Lourenço-de-Oliveira R, Juliano SA, Lounibos LP (2003) Convergent habitat segregation of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in southeastern Brazil and Florida, USA. J Med Entomol 40:785–794

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Braks MAH, Juliano SA, Lounibos LP (2006) Superior reproductive success on human blood without sugar is not limited to highly anthrophilic mosquito species. Med Vet Entomol 20:53–59

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Calcagno V, Mouquet N, Jarne P, David P (2006) Coexistence in a metacommunity: the competition-colonization trade-off is not dead. Ecol Lett 9:897–907

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carbajo AE, Curto SI, Schweigman NJ (2006) Spatial distribution pattern of oviposition in the mosquito Aedes aegypti in relation to urbanization in Buenos Aires: southern fringe bionomics of an introduced vector. Med Vet Entomol 20:209–218

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chadee DD, Corbet PS, Greenwood JJD (2002) Egg-laying yellow fever mosquitoes avoid sites containing eggs laid by themselves or by conspecifics. Entomol Exp Appl 57:1990

    Google Scholar 

  • Chase JM, Leibold MA (2002) Spatial scale dictates the productivity-biodiversity relationship. Nature 416:427–429

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chesson P (2000a) Mechanisms of maintenance of species diversity. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 31:343–366

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chesson P (2000b) General theory of competitive coexistence in spatially-varying environments. Theor Popul Biol 58:211–237

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chesson PL, Huntly N (1997) The roles of harsh and fluctuating conditions in the dynamics of ecological communities. Am Nat 150:519–553

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Costanzo KS, Kesavaraju B, Juliano SA (2005) Condition specific competition in container mosquitoes: the role of non-competing life-history stages. Ecology 86:3289–3295

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Daugherty MP, Alto BW, Juliano SA (2000) Invertebrate carcasses as a resource for competing Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae). J Med Entomol 37:364–372

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Geographic Mapping Section (1999) Florida land use, cover and forms classification system handbook, 3rd edn. Florida Department of Transportation Surveying and Mapping Office, Tallahassee, FL

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerhardt RR et al (2001) The first isolation of La Crosse virus from naturally occurring infected Aedes albopictus. Emerg Infect Dis 7:807–811

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gomes AC, Silva NN, Marques GRAM, Brito M (2003) Host-feeding patterns of potential human disease vectors in the Paraiba Valley Region, State of Sao Paulo. Brazil J Vector Biol 28:74–78

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Harrington LC, Edman JD, Scott TW (2001) Why do female Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) feed preferentially and frequently on human blood? J Med Entomol 38:411–422

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hartley S, Shorrocks B (2002) A general framework for the aggregation model of coexistence. J Anim Ecol 71:651–662

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heard SB, Remer LC (1997) Clutch-size behaviour and coexistence in ephemeral-patch competition models. Am Nat 150:744–770

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ibañez-Berñal SB, Briseño JP, Mutebi EA, Rodriguez G (1997) First record in America of Aedes albopictus naturally infected with dengue virus during the 1995 outbreak at Reynosa, Mexico. Med Vet Entomol 11:305–309

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ives AR (1988) Covariance, coexistence and the population dynamics of two competitors using a patchy resource. J Theor Biol 133:345–361

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juliano SA (1998) Species introduction and replacement among mosquitoes: interspecific resource competition or apparent competition. Ecology 79:255–268

    Google Scholar 

  • Juliano SA, Lounibos LP (2005) Ecology of invasive mosquitoes: effects on resident species and on human health. Ecol Lett 8:558–574

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Juliano SA, O’Meara GF, Morrill JR, Cutwa MM (2002) Desiccation and thermal tolerance of eggs and the coexistence of competing mosquitoes. Oecologia 130:458–469

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juliano SA, Lounibos LP, O’Meara GF (2004) A field test for competitive effects of Aedes albopictus on A. aegypti in South Florida: differences between sites of coexistence and exclusion. Oecologia 194:583–593

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lounibos LP (2002) Invasions by insect vectors of human disease. Annu Rev Entomol 47:233–266

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mokany A, Shine R (2003) Oviposition site selection by mosquitoes is affected by cues from conspecific larvae and anuran tadpoles. Aust Ecol 28:33–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Meara GF, Evans LF Jr, Gettman AD, Cuda JP (1995) Spread of Aedes albopictus and decline of Ae. aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) in Florida. J Med Entomol 32:554–562

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rey JR, Nishimura N, Wagner B, Braks MAH, O’Connell SM, Lounibos LP (2006) Habitat segregation of mosquito arbovirus vectors in south Florida. J Med Entomol 43:1134–1141

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • SAS Institute Inc. (2003) SAS user’s guide: statistics. Version 9.1. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC

    Google Scholar 

  • Serpa LLN, Costa K, Voltolini JC, Kakitani I (2006) Seasonal variation of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in a city of Southeastern Brazil. Rev Saude Publica 40:1101–1105

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sokal RR, Rohlf FJ (1995) Biometry: the principles and practice of statistics in biological research, 3rd edn. Freeman, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilman D (1982) Resource competition and community structure. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Turell MJ, Dohm DJ, Sardelis MR, O’Guinn ML, Andreadis TG, Blow JA (2005) An update on the potential of North American mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) to transmit West Nile virus. J Med Entomol 42:57–62

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank G.F. O’Meara, S.S. Loew, K. Damal, M. Reiskind, L.P. Lounibos, and two anonymous referees for useful comments, and the Mosquito and Aquatic Weed Control Center of Hillsborough County, FL for their use of facilities and resources. This experiment was funded by NIAID grant R01-AI-44793 and by a grant to SAJ from Illinois State University. Experiments comply with the laws of the United States.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742-2315, USA

    Paul T. Leisnham

  2. School of Biological Sciences, Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics Section, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, 61790-4120, USA

    S. A. Juliano

Authors
  1. Paul T. Leisnham
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S. A. Juliano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul T. Leisnham.

Additional information

Communicated by Craig Osenberg.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Leisnham, P.T., Juliano, S.A. Spatial and temporal patterns of coexistence between competing Aedes mosquitoes in urban Florida. Oecologia 160, 343–352 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1305-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1305-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation