Paull Sara H, Thibault Katherine M, Benson Abigail L
Battelle, National Ecological Observatory Network, 1685 38th Street, Boulder, CO 80301, USA.
U.S. Geological Survey, Core Science Systems, Denver Federal Center, Building 810, Denver, CO 80225, USA.
GigaByte. 2022 May 20;2022:gigabyte56. doi: 10.46471/gigabyte.56. eCollection 2022.
Cases of tick-borne diseases have been steadily increasing in the USA, owing in part to tick range expansion, land cover and associated host population changes, and habitat fragmentation. However, the relative importance of these and other potential drivers remain poorly understood within this complex disease system. Ticks are ectotherms with multi-host lifecycles, which makes them sensitive to changes in the physical environment and the ecological community. Here, we describe data collected by the National Ecological Observatory Network on tick abundance, diversity and pathogen infection. Ticks are collected using drag or flag methods multiple times in a growing season at 46 terrestrial sites across the USA. Ticks are identified and enumerated by a professional taxonomist, and a subset of nymphs are PCR-tested for various tick-borne pathogens. These data will enable multiscale analyses to better understand how drivers of tick dynamics and pathogen prevalence may shift with climate or land-use change.
在美国，蜱传疾病的病例一直在稳步增加，部分原因是蜱虫分布范围扩大、土地覆盖及相关宿主种群变化，以及栖息地破碎化。然而，在这个复杂的疾病系统中，这些因素以及其他潜在驱动因素的相对重要性仍知之甚少。蜱虫是变温动物，具有多宿主生命周期，这使得它们对物理环境和生态群落的变化很敏感。在此，我们描述了国家生态观测站网络收集的关于蜱虫丰度、多样性和病原体感染的数据。在美国各地的46个陆地站点，在生长季节使用拖拽或旗标法多次采集蜱虫。蜱虫由专业分类学家进行鉴定和计数，并且对一部分若虫进行多种蜱传病原体的PCR检测。这些数据将有助于进行多尺度分析，以更好地了解蜱虫动态和病原体流行的驱动因素如何随气候或土地利用变化而转变。
