Invasion Biology of Aedes albopictus. This project has been the major focus of our research since 1999, when we began to examine the ecology and genetics of establishments of this species in the Americas. Co-investigators on this project are currently Steve Juliano of Illinois State University, and George O'Meara of FMEL/UF, who share an R01 NIH grant awarded to me. Current collaborators include Jorge Rey FMEL/UF, Frederic Tripet of Keele University (England), and Claudia Codeço at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro. Research in Brazil is supported by a new (2008-2010) FIRCA grant from NIH's Fogarty International Center to investigate the ecology of invasive vectors in the context of endemic dengue transmission.

Ricardo Lourenço-de-Oliveira (center) sampling Aedes albopictus from tires near Florianopolis, Brazil	Steve Juliano (L) and Naoya Nishimura preparing cemetery vases for a field experiment with container Aedes in Ft. Myers, Florida

 

Predicting Spatial Variation in West Nile Virus Transmission. This multidisciplinary project examines how key characteristics of vector and host communities associated with anthropogenic land use cause spatial variation in West Nile virus transmission. The research in a rural to urban gradient in the Washington DC area is sponsored by an Ecology of Infectious Diseases grant from NSF to Marm Kilpatrick (PI) of the Consortium for Conservation Medicine of Wildlife Trust Inc. in NYC.

Human Ecology and Urban Dengue in Colombia.  This project links human behaviors, such as water storage and social networks, to Aedes aegypti productivity, through models and experiments to explain the spatial and temporal patterns of dengue in Colombian cities.  FMEL Ph.D. student Harish Padmanabha coordinates this project in Colombia, with multiple collaborators, and North American funding has been sought from NSF/EID and Univ. of Florida through proposals by J. Rey, P. Lounibos, and C. Lord.

Treeholes as Metacommunities.  This project builds upon a long-term database about mosquitoes in treeholes at FMEL to test predictions of metacommunity theory through manipulative field experiments in Florida hammocks.  In collaboration with Nick Gotelli of the Univ. of Vermont and Alicia Ellis of Univ. of North Carolina, funding for this work has been sought from NSF/DEB.