School of Biological Sciences, 19 Chlorine Gardens, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT9 5DL, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa.
Department of Ecology and Resource Management, University of Venda, Thohoyandou 0950, South Africa.
Sci Total Environ. 2019 Nov 1;689:652-654. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.470. Epub 2019 Jun 28.
Ecological impacts of invasive alien species can be unpredictable and simultaneously span multiple habitat types and taxonomic groups. Invasive alien plants can have particularly severe impacts, and plant inputs into aquatic environments can profoundly alter community composition of invertebrates, such as mosquitoes. Here, we examine larval mosquito colonisation of aquatic containers treated with leaves from four different terrestrial plants: the invasive tickberry Lantana camara, invasive guava Psidium guajava, native sycamore fig Ficus sycomorus and native silver cluster-leaf Terminalia sericea. Larval mosquito abundances differed significantly accordingly to leaf treatment, whilst no mosquitoes colonised leaf-free controls. Leaf litter from the invasive L. camara, invasive P. guajava and native F. sycomorus drove significant increases in mosquito abundances relative to native T. sericea. We demonstrate the importance of plant identity for larval mosquito proliferations in aquatic habitats, with changes in plant community composition following terrestrial plant invasions potentially resulting in increased mosquito abundances. In turn, this may have implications for the vectoring of mosquito-borne disease.
外来入侵物种的生态影响可能是不可预测的，同时跨越多个栖息地类型和分类群。外来入侵植物可能会产生特别严重的影响，而植物输入到水生环境中会深刻改变无脊椎动物的群落组成，例如蚊子。在这里，我们研究了用四种不同的陆生植物的叶子处理过的水生容器中幼虫蚊子的定殖情况：入侵性的 tickberry Lantana camara、入侵性的番石榴 Psidium guajava、本地的 sycamore fig Ficus sycomorus 和本地的银色 cluster-leaf Terminalia sericea。根据叶子的处理方式，幼虫蚊子的数量有显著差异，而没有蚊子在没有叶子的对照中定殖。与本地 T. sericea 相比，入侵性的 L. camara、入侵性的 P. guajava 和本地的 F. sycomorus 的落叶促进了蚊子数量的显著增加。我们证明了植物身份对水生栖息地中幼虫蚊子增殖的重要性，随着陆地植物入侵导致植物群落组成的变化，蚊子数量可能会增加。反过来，这可能会对蚊子传播的疾病产生影响。
