Effect of ecological factors and breeding habitat types on Culicine larvae occurrence and abundance in residential areas Southern Thailand.

Mosquitoes are a vector of human disease transmitting malaria, and many arboviruses such as dengue virus and Zika virus. This study determined mosquito larval occurrence and abundance in residential areas around Suratthani Rajabhat University as influenced by ecological factors and breeding container diversity. Mosquito larvae were collected using a standard dipping method from 95 locations during April through September 2019 and environmental factors such as physicochemical parameters of water in the breeding containers were measured. During the survey, a total of 194 houses were inspected, of which 58 were found to be infested with mosquito larvae, with a house index of 29.90, a container index of 25.55, and a Breteau index of 48.99. A total of 5,123 mosquito larvae were reported from seven breeding habitat types namely, plastics, cement, mud pots, glass, foam, discarded tires and natural materials. Among the collected larvae, Aedes albopictus (56.45%) was most prevalent, while Culex sp. (22.33%) and Aedes aegypti were less prevalent (21.21%). The most common mosquito larvae breeding habitats were plastics (44.22%) followed by discarded tires (18.14%). The spearman correlation analysis showed that the number of mosquito larvae were significantly positively correlated with the depths and width of containers (p<0.05). These findings are helpful in understanding the ecological factors and breeding habitat types that influence mosquito species and their abundance, and also in determining ways to control mosquito borne diseases.

Evapotranspiration Cycles in a High Latitude Agroecosystem: Potential Warming Role.

As the acreages of agricultural lands increase, changes in surface energetics and evapotranspiration (ET) rates may arise consequently affecting regional climate regimes. The objective of this study was to evaluate summertime ET dynamics and surface energy processes in a subarctic agricultural farm in Interior Alaska. The study includes micrometeorological and hydrological data. Results covering the period from June to September 2012 and 2013 indicated consistent energy fractions: LE/Rnet (67%), G/Rnet (6%), H/Rnet (27%) where LE is latent heat flux, Rnet is the surface net radiation, G is ground heat flux and H is the sensible heat flux. Additionally actual surface evapotranspiration from potential evaporation was found to be in the range of 59 to 66%. After comparing these rates with those of most prominent high latitude ecosystems it is argued here that if agroecosystem in high latitudes become an emerging feature in the land-use, the regional surface energy balance will significantly shift in comparison to existing Arctic natural ecosystems.