Effect of changing climatic variables on abundance of Anopheles mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in urbanizing Ghaziabad district, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

Climatic variables like temperature, rainfall and humidity play an important role in dynamics of mosquitoes. But the effect of climate change during urbanization on Anopheles mosquitoes has not been studied. The objective of present study was to explore the effects through the changes in climate variables of urbanizing Ghaziabad District, India on malaria vector Anopheles sp., particularly Anopheles stephensi (Liston) and An. culicifacies sensu lato (Diptera: Culicidae). The study was conducted in urban, rural and peri-urban parts seasonally from April 2014 to October 2016. Association between climate variables, malaria and Anopheles abundance was studied through Pearson's correlation and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Results showed that pollution in water bodies and low rainfall has decreased the abundance of An. culicifacies s.l in rural and peri-urban whereas An. stephensi L has increased in rural areas. In urban and peri-urban areas rainfall has lesser influence on An. stephensi hence species breeds throughout the year easily whereas the humidity supports both the vectors. The role of temperature was found to be uncertain, although minimum temperature found to influence vector density as indicated by cluster analysis in the present study.