Effects of ultraviolet radiation on metabolic rate and fitness of Aedes albopictus and Culex pipiens mosquitoes

Oswaldo C Villena; Bahram Momen; Joseph Sullivan; Paul T Leisnham

doi:10.7717/peerj.6133

Effects of ultraviolet radiation on metabolic rate and fitness of Aedes albopictus and Culex pipiens mosquitoes

PeerJ. 2018 Dec 18:6:e6133. doi: 10.7717/peerj.6133. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Oswaldo C Villena¹, Bahram Momen², Joseph Sullivan³, Paul T Leisnham²

Affiliations

¹ Marine Estuarine & Environmental Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States of America.
² Department of Environmental Science & Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States of America.
³ Department of Plant Science & Landscape Architecture, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States of America.

Abstract

Natural and anthropogenic changes (e.g., land use change, pollution) will alter many environmental factors in the coming years, including the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth's surface. Alterations in solar radiation exposure is likely to impact the ecologies of many living organisms, including invertebrates that inhabit aquatic habitats. In this study, we assessed the effect of UV-B radiation on the metabolic rates and fitness (survival, development time, body size) of Aedes albopictus and Culex pipiens mosquitoes and the activity of their microbial food resources in experimental aquatic microcosms. We exposed single-species cohorts of newly hatched Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens larvae and a control treatment with no larvae to three UV-B conditions that mimicked those in full-sun and shade in the field and to a control condition with no UV-B radiation. Our results indicated that UV-B radiation affected the metabolic rates of both Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens larvae, with significantly higher rates found in full-sun compared to shade and no-UV conditions, 8 and 15 days after exposure began. Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens survival was also affected by UV-B radiation condition, with significantly lower survival in full-sun compared to shade and no UV-B conditions. Microbial metabolic rates were consistently significantly lower in full-sun compared to shade and no-UV conditions, especially at 8 days of exposure. These results show that UV-B radiation at levels found in open spaces showed strong and important impacts on the metabolic rates and survival of Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens larvae. Decreased survival of Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens with higher UV-B radiation levels may be caused by both direct exposure to radiation as well as the indirect effects of reduced microbial food, resulting in greater metabolic demands and stress. Negative impacts of UV-B radiation on the survival of Ae. albopictus and Cx. pipiens are likely to have important implications for the distribution and abundance of these mosquitoes, and the transmission of pathogens that these two broadly distributed mosquitoes vector.

Keywords: Metabolic rate; Microbial communities; UV-B radiation; Vector competence.

Grants and funding

The study was supported by a Maryland Agriculture Experimental Station Grant MD-ENST-2956, USDA Multistate project MD-ENST-1443, and an NSF-Couple Natural Human Systems Program award (DEB-1211797) to Paul T. Leisnham. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.