The integrated effects of the many risk factors associated with West Nile virus (WNV) incidence are complex and not well understood. We studied an array of risk factors in and around Atlanta, GA, that have been shown to be linked with WNV in other locations. This array was comprehensive and included climate and meteorological metrics, vegetation characteristics, land use / land cover analyses, and socioeconomic factors. Data on mosquito abundance and WNV mosquito infection rates were obtained for 58 sites and covered 2009-2011, a period following the combined storm water -sewer overflow remediation in that city. Risk factors were compared to mosquito abundance and the WNV vector index (VI) using regression analyses individually and in combination. Lagged climate variables, including soil moisture and temperature, were significantly correlated (positively) with vector index as were forest patch size and percent pine composition of patches (both negatively). Socioeconomic factors that were most highly correlated (positively) with the VI included the proportion of low income households and homes built before 1960 and housing density. The model selected through stepwise regression that related risk factors to the VI included (in the order of decreasing influence) proportion of houses built before 1960, percent of pine in patches, and proportion of low income households. Journal of Vector Ecology 41 (2): 232-243. 2016.Keyword Index: West Nile virus, water quality, socioeconomic health risk, forest cover loss, urbanization, climate induced health risk.

Riparian zones are important catchment‐scale depositional environments that receive episodic influx of sediment and C from watershed sources. The specific impacts of upland disturbances on riparian soil development and soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics are still largely unknown. The goal of our study was to understand the role of riparian soils in retaining C at the landscape and catchment scales. We quantified SOC pools to a depth of 1 m at 29 headwater riparian sites in southern New England. Riparian SOC pools ranged from 117 to 495 Mg C ha−1, with a mean pool of 246 Mg C ha−1. On average, >50% of the total SOC was stored below 30 cm. Riparian SOC pools differed significantly between soils formed in relatively fast accreting environments (those that contain buried surface horizons; 277 Mg C ha−1) and those in slow accreting environments where buried horizons were absent (188 Mg C ha−1). Catchment‐scale analysis of SOC distribution indicated that riparian zones, on average, occupy 8% of the total watershed area yet store as much as 20% of the total catchment SOC. These results suggest that even though riparian zones occupy a small percentage of the overall watershed, these areas are an important component of the landscape for storage of SOC deposited as a result of catchment‐scale disturbances.

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Como ejemplos clave del urbanismo en el Nuevo Mundo indígena, las ciudades mayas son temas de gran trascendencia antropológica. A pesar de su importancia comparativa, durante gran parte del siglo veinte los centros mayas del Clásico (ca. 250-950 d.C.) han sido vistos como “no-ciudades”, capitales de entidades complejas, pero marcadas por la ausencia de una densidad característica de lugares puramente urbanos. Fletcher propuso que el urbanismo maya corresponde a un tipo urbano que denomina “urbanismo agrario de baja-densidad”; aunque, como todas las categorías tipológicas, también tiene debilidades. Este artículo presenta los resultados de más de diez años de investigación de la ciudad maya clásica de El Perú-Waka’, en Guatemala, con el fin de evaluar el modelo de Fletcher en el área maya. Los datos procedentes de Waka’ sugieren que, a pesar de que en general el modelo de Fletcher es ampliamente aplicable a las Tierras Bajas, es necesario volver a examinar diversos supuestos sobre las ciudades mayas.