Arctic warming appears to be causing a boost in mosquito populations, and the phenomenon could pose a significant threat to local caribou and other animals they commonly feast on.
New research suggests Arctic mosquitoes' probability of surviving to adulthood will increase more than 50 percent if temperatures climb 2 degrees Celsius, Dartmouth College reported. Changes in the timing and intensity of mosquito emergence could affect their role as pests to humans and animals, as well as their role as a food source for local pollinators.
Average temperatures in the Arctic have risen at twice the global rate in the past 100 years, and this could change emergence patterns of mosquitoes that develop in shallow temporary ponds of springtime snowmelt. To look at these potential changes, a team of researchers used field and lab studies to measure the impacts of changing temperatures on the development and death rates of mosquitoes in western Greenland. They used the data to develop a model that evaluated the impact of both current and predicted temperature changes.
The results of the model suggested warmer spring temperatures caused Arctic mosquitoes to emerge two weeks early, and shortened their development phase in the larvae and pupal stages by about 10 percent for every 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature. Warming also increased the number of adult mosquitoes that were eaten by diving beetles, but decreased predation by aquatic predators by making larvae more vulnerable. Warming would more closely synchronize the life cycles of mosquitoes with those of caribou calving, allowing them to easily feed on the defenseless offspring.
"Increased mosquito abundance, in addition to northward range expansions of additional pest species, will have negative consequences for the health and reproduction of caribou," said lead author Lauren Culler, a postdoctoral researcher at Dartmouth's Dickey Center's Institute of Arctic Studies. "Warming in the Arctic can thus challenge the sustainability of wild caribou and managed reindeer in Fennoscandia (Norway, Sweden, Finland and parts of northwest Russia), which are an important subsistence resource for local communities."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
