The response of mosquitoes to bushfire is poorly understood. During the 2019-20 summer, many regions of Australia were impacted by devastating bushfires. An area of estuarine and brackish-water wetlands alongside the Georges River, Sydney, New South Wales, was burned in January 2020. Mosquito populations within the area were monitored as part of the local authority's mosquito management program, providing a unique opportunity to record the response of key mosquitoes of pest and public health concern to bushfire. Ground pools within a tidally influenced swamp oak forest dominated by Casuarina glauca and associated wetlands dominated by Phragmites australis and Bolboschoenus spp. had been identified as suitable habitat for a range of mosquitoes, including Aedes alternans, Ae. vigilax, and Verrallina funerea. Surveys of immature stages of mosquitoes within recently burned habitats inundated by tides demonstrated that mosquito eggs survived the direct and indirect impacts of fire and immature stages successfully completed development as reflected in concomitant changes in adult mosquito populations following the bushfire. This unique observation has implications for mosquito management following bushfire in Australia and internationally.
Keywords: Aedes alternans; Aedes vigilax; Verrallina funerea; wetlands; wildfire.
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