Thermal biology of mosquito‐borne disease

Mosquito-borne diseases cause a major burden of disease worldwide. The vital rates of these ectothermic vectors and parasites respond strongly and nonlinearly to temperature and therefore to climate change. Here, we review how trait-based approaches can synthesise and mechanistically predict the temperature dependence of transmission across vectors, pathogens, and environments. We present 11 pathogens transmitted by 15 different mosquito species - including globally important diseases like malaria, dengue, and Zika - synthesised from previously published studies. Transmission varied strongly and unimodally with temperature, peaking at 23-29ºC and declining to zero below 9-23ºC and above 32-38ºC. Different…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: R01AI110793
• HF
  Hellman Foundation
• SO
  School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University
• SW
  Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
• DO
  Division of Environmental Biology

  Award: DEB-1518681