Spatial analysis of habitat preference of Aedes albopictus

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Faculty
of Veterinary
Medicine
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Different sizes of the buffer were tested and a radius of 20 meters
resulted to be the best compromise in terms of variability among
buffers.
Ae. albopictus seems to prefer warm areas with vegetation and to
dislike areas with concrete.
The study was conducted in a small urban area, which did not include
all the possible land cover classes.
In further studies would be interesting to test interactions among
land cover types, to add information about water (e.g., manholes)
and data about human density.
DATA
Spatial analysis of habitat preference of
Aedes albopictus
1 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine,
Utrecht University, Utrecht,
The Netherlands
2 Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate
Research, Earth and Life Institute, Université
catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Daniela Cianci1 | Nienke Hartemink1 | Caroline Zeimes2 | Sophie Vanwambeke2 | Alessandra della Torre3 |
Beniamino Caputo3
3 Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica e
Malattie Infettive, Università di
Roma “La Sapienza”, Roma, Italy
AIM: Investigate the preferred habitats of Aedes albopictus in an urban area
Correspondence: d.cianci@uu.nl
This project was funded by EU
grant FP7-261504 EDENext
METHOD
The analysis was conducted using circular buffer around the trap
with a radius of 20 meters.
Two regression models for count data were applied:
oOutcome: number of mosquitoes/eggs;
oIndependent variables: land cover categories in the buffer,
solar radiation and month of the collection;
oAdjusted for trap effect, precipitation, temperature, humidity
and wind speed.
The land cover variables were selected to obtain the best model fit
(AIC).
The models were used to assess which land cover variables affect
the number of mosquitoes/eggs and whether the effect is positive or
negative.
PRELIMINARY RESULTS
Figure 2a. Spatial distribution of the mosquitoes
collected in “Sapienza” campus of Rome in 2008.
The size of the pie charts is proportional to the
number of mosquitoes collected in the trap.
Figure 2b. Spatial distribution of the eggs
collected in “Sapienza” campus of Rome in 2011.
The size of the pie charts is proportional to the
number of eggs collected in the trap.
Ae. albopictus females were collected
with 55 sticky traps, in the period from
13th August to 31st October 2008.
Ae. albopictus eggs were collected
with 55 ovitraps, in the period from
8th July to 21st October 2011.
Mosquitoes Eggs
Mosquitoes
Eggs
 variable selected but not significant
 variable selected and significant
- variable not selected
Variables selected in each model
Figure 1. Study area: campus of “Sapienza” University in Rome
Figure 3. Digitized map of the campus of “Sapienza” University in Rome
with the land cover classification and the buffers around the traps.
Positive effect Negative effect
Variables Models for
mosquitoes Models for
eggs
Botanical garden - 
Building  -
Bush - -
Car park  -
Grass - -
Manholes - -
Solar radiation  
Trees -  Positive effect
Botanical garden
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank Neil Alexander (ERGO) for providing
support in the digitization of the map of the campus.