Validating Species Distribution Models With Standardized Surveys for Ixodid Ticks in Mainland Florida

Glass, Gregory E.; Ganser, Claudia; Kessler, William H.

doi:10.1093/jme/tjaa282

Cited by 10 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…There were 560 transects surveyed for adult ticks using the standard collection protocols. These transects were located at 41 sites [7,14]. Of all the transects, 98 (17.5 %) yielded A. americanum and 65 (11.6 %) yielded I. scapularis.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Field Specimens. Protocols for standard tick surveys performed in mainland Florida from 2015-2019 are described in detail elsewhere [7,17]. Briefly, regions of the state were subdivided by six climatic regions identified by NOAA [18] and 5 category I land cover classes [19].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, it is unclear if the new protocols generate results that are both internally consistent and produce substantially different results than passively collected data sources that make the incurred costs worthwhile. Glass and colleagues [7] showed that the predicted distribution ranges of three ixodid tick species in mainland Florida that were generated from the CDC protocols had high levels of internal consistency and external validity when new sites were sampled in subsequent years. However, they left open the question of how different the results generated from new survey methods were compared to those from previously collected data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To consider these challenges, teams from the Southeastern Regional Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases (SECVBD; https://cdcsercoevbd-flgateway.org/) performed surveys using the proposed CDC protocols (standard surveys) to generate predicted distributions of the two most commonly collected, human-biting ixodid tick species in mainland Florida [7,14,15]. These species; Amblyomma americanum (Linnaeus, Ixodida, Ixodidae) and, Ixodes scapularis (Say, Ixodida, Ixodidae) are often implicated as vectors of viral and bacterial pathogens in Eastern North America [1,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The initial study of internal validity for the standard survey methods [14,17] showed that the standard sampling generated ensemble models of SDMs that were consistent. Following the initial surveys, a single year validation survey at new locations produced ensemble models with very high (91-100%) sensitivity and increasing specificity as SDM concordance increased for all the tick species [7]. The ensemble models also narrowed the geographic extents of the species ranges within Florida by 25-50% [14,17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ensemble Models for Tick Vectors: Standard Surveys Compared with Convenience Samples

Kessler¹,

Jesus²,

Glass³

2022

Preprint

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Ensembles of Species Distribution Models (SDMs) represent the geographic ranges of pathogen vectors by combining alternative analytical approaches and merging information on vector occurrences with more extensive environmental data. Biased collection data impact SDMs, regardless of the target species but no studies have compared the differences in the distributions predicted by the ensemble models when different sampling frameworks are used for the same species. We compared Ensemble SDMs for two important Ixodid tick vectors, Amblyomma americanum and Ixodes scapularis in mainland Florida, USA, when inputs were either convenience samples of ticks, or collections obtained using the standard protocols promulgated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Ensemble SDMs for the convenience samples and standard surveys showed only a slight agreement (Kappa = 0.060, A. americanum; 0.053, I. scapularis). Convenience sample SDMs indicated A. americanum and I. scapularis should be absent from 34.5% and 30.9% of the state where standard surveys predicted the highest likelihood of occurrence of the respective vectors. Ensemble models from standard surveys predicted 81.4% and 72.5% (A. americanum and I. scapularis) of convenience sample sites. Omission errors by standard survey SDMs, of the convenience collections, frequently were associated with adjacency to at least one SDM or errors in geocoding algorithms that failed to correctly locate convenience samples. These geocoding errors emphasize commonly overlooked needs to explicitly evaluate and improve data quality for vector survey data used in spatial models.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Ensemble Models for Tick Vectors: Standard Surveys Compared with Convenience Samples

Kessler¹,

Jesus²,

Glass³

2022

Preprint

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Modeling the geographical distributions of Chordodes formosanus and its mantis hosts in Taiwan, with considerations for their niche overlaps

Vivo

Huang

2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Species distribution models (SDMs) have conventionally been used for evaluating the distribution of individual species, but they can also be used, through comparing different SDMs, to evaluate the geographic similarity between taxa. In this study, we used a parasite and host system to infer the geographic overlaps between species with tight biological interaction, for example, parasites and their obligate host. Specifically, we used the horsehair worm Chordodes formosanus and its three mantis hosts to study the extent of niche overlap. We retrieved presence points for the host species and the parasite, and then we built SDMs with MaxEnt implemented in ENMeval using selected bioclim variables (based on variance inflation factor values) at 30s scale. The models showed that the hosts and parasite do not occur in the high elevation areas in Taiwan, which is expected based on their biology. Interestingly, the predicted parasite distribution included areas without collection records, implying local extinction or sampling bias. We subsequently evaluated niche overlap between hosts and the parasite according to five similarity indices (Schoener's D , I statistic, relative rank, Pearson correlation coefficient, and the rank correlation coefficient rho). Our models showed a high similarity of SDM predictions between hosts and the parasite. There were differences among metrics for which host shared the highest similarity with the parasite, but the majority of the results indicated that the Japanese boxing mantis had the highest niche similarity with the horsehair worm. The choice of the niche overlap metric to use can uncover information on the parasite's ecology, which can be important for endangered species. SDMs are reliable tools for host and parasite conservation management and could help improve our understanding of parasite biology and ecology.

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Revealing large‐scale parasite ranges: An integrated spatiotemporal database and multisource analysis of the winter tick

et al. 2023

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Concerns that climate warming may drive the spread of ectoparasites into previously uninhabited areas have increased the need for baseline knowledge of their distributional history. For species of wildlife health concern, presence data are often lacking or outdated, thus limiting our ability to assess range changes and subsequent host impacts. We reconstructed the past and present distribution of the winter tick, Dermacentor albipictus, through the compilation of a spatiotemporal database to create the first full baseline map of its occurrence throughout its North American range. The ongoing impacts of winter tick epizootics in moose (Alces alces) and recent mortality events in elk (Cervus canadensis) and white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have led to a resurgence in interest in the future of this parasite in a warming climate. Over 3400 unique records of winter tick occurrence were compiled from multiple data sources, dating from 1869 to 2020 and spanning from 16.5 to 66.2° N latitude. Both conventional published sources and natural history records were included along with new records from previously unpublished datasets and citizen science observations, to make this a comprehensive occurrence dataset for this species. Along with standardized location information and year of observation, the dataset includes associated host species and descriptive categorization of the type and source of each record, providing new opportunities to examine host–parasite interactions in the winter tick system over time and space. In presenting these data, we discuss the potential sampling biases and lacunas in our integrated database records, particularly at the winter tick's northernmost range. We also document changes in the types and sources of winter tick information from past to present, highlighting potential issues that should be considered before using these data in further analyses and when collecting ongoing records. Our database demonstrates that the collation and synthesis of records beyond conventional sources can shed light on the distributional history of tick species and serve as a useful baseline for prioritizing future research and management decisions.

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Validating Species Distribution Models With Standardized Surveys for Ixodid Ticks in Mainland Florida

Cited by 10 publications

References 33 publications

Ensemble Models for Tick Vectors: Standard Surveys Compared with Convenience Samples

Ensemble Models for Tick Vectors: Standard Surveys Compared with Convenience Samples

Modeling the geographical distributions of Chordodes formosanus and its mantis hosts in Taiwan, with considerations for their niche overlaps

Revealing large‐scale parasite ranges: An integrated spatiotemporal database and multisource analysis of the winter tick

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