Regional and seasonal response of a West Nile virus vector to climate change.

ABSTRACT: Climate change will affect the abundance and seasonality of West Nile virus (WNV) vectors, altering the risk of virus transmission to humans. Using downscaled general circulation model output, we calculate a WNV vector's response to climate change across the southern United States using process-based modeling. In the eastern United States, Culex quinquefasciatus response to projected climate change displays a latitudinal and elevational gradient. Projected summer population depressions as a result of increased immature mortality and habitat drying are most severe in the south and almost absent further north; extended spring and fall survival is ubiquitous. Much of California also exhibits a bimodal pattern. Projected onset of mosquito season is delayed in the southwestern United States bec

SUBMITTER: Morin CW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3785720 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature