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Landscapes affect natural dengue vector control through food webs in both terrestrial and aquatic environments.

Environmental disturbances such as deforestation, urbanization or pollution have been widely acknowledged to play a key role in the emergence of many infectious diseases, including mosquito-borne viruses. However, we have little understanding of how habitat isolation affects the communities containing disease vectors. Here, we test the effects of habitat type and isolation on the colonization rates, species richness and abundances of mosquitoes and their aquatic predators in water-filled containers in northwestern Thailand. For eight weeks water-filled containers were monitored in areas containing forest, urban and agricultural habitats and mixtures of these three. Mosquito larvae of the genera Aedes and Culex appeared to be differentially affected by the presence of the dominant predator; Toxorhynchites splendens (Culicidae). Therefore, a predation experiment was conducted to determine predator response to prey density and its relative effects on different mosquito prey populations. Colonization rates, species richness and abundances of mosquito predators were strongly related to forest habitat and to the distance from other aquatic habitats. Areas with more tree cover had higher predator species richness and abundance in containers. Containers that were close to surface water were more rapidly colonized than those further away. In all habitat types, including urban areas, when predators were present, the number of mosquito larvae was much lower. Containers in urban areas closer to water-bodies, or with more canopy cover, had higher predator colonization rates and species richness. T. splendens (Culicidae) preyed on the larvae of two mosquito genera at different rates, which appeared to be related to prey behaviour. This study shows that anthropogenic landscape modification has an important effect on the natural biological control of mosquitoes. Vector control programmes and urban planning should attempt to integrate ecological theory when developing strategies to reduce mosquito populations. This would result in management strategies that are beneficial for both public health and biodiversity. ZusammenfassungStörungen der Umwelt, wie Abholzung, Verstädterung oder Umweltverschmutzung werden weithin als Schlüsselfaktoren für das Auftreten von ansteckenden Krankheiten, einschließlich der von Stechmücken verbreiteten Viren, angesehen. Indessen wissen wir wenig darüber, wie die Isolation von Habitaten die Gemeinschaften beeinflusst, die Krankheitsvektoren enthalten. Hier R. Weterings et al. / Basic and Applied Ecology 15 (2014) 486-495 487untersuchen wir die Effekte von Habitat-Typ und Isolation auf die Besiedelungsraten, den Artenreichtum und die Abundanzen von Stechmücken und deren Räubern in Wasserbehältern im nordwestlichen Thailand. Acht Wochen lang waren die Behälter in Betrieb, in Gebieten mit Wald, bebauten Flächen, landwirtschaftlichen Flächen und Mischungen der drei Habitat-Typen. Die Larven der Stechmückengattungen Aedes und Culex schienen unterschiedlich von der Anwesenheit des dominanten Räu-bers; Toxor...

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Safeguarding biodiversity is an important component of the REDD+ scheme of the United NationsFramework Convention on Climate Change. Information on tree species and their distribution is therefore needed for successful implementation of forestry carbon projects. Forest inventory data were collected in four natural forests located in Popa Mountain Park, Myanmar. Based on the data from 4-ha sample plots, average stem density ranges from 1293 trees ha −1 in dry dipterocarp forest to 804 tree ha −1 in dry evergreen forest. According to the Jackknife estimator for species richness (trees with DBH ≥ 5 cm), the highest number of species was recorded in dry mixed deciduous forest-74 species ha −1 , and the lowest number of species recorded in dry forest-40 species ha −1 . Dry mixed deciduous forest occupied the highest value on the Shannon-Wiener index and Simpson diversity index while the lowest was in dry forest, indicating that dry mixed deciduous forest is the most complex whereas dry forest is the simplest community. Not only does this study provide useful information on the current status of vegetation type but the information is important for designing forestry management systems that could result in biodiversity conservation and carbon emission reductions.Y. Y. Aye et al. 1589 * DMDF = dry mixed deciduous forest, DDF= dry dipterocarp forest, DF= dry forest, DHEF = dry hill/evergreen forest, DBH = diameter at breast height, Ht = height, BA = basal area, Vol = volume.