Relative roles of aggregation, competition, and predation in the North American invasion of the Asian Bush mosquito, Aedes japonicus

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dc.contributor.advisorLeisnham, Paul Ten_US
dc.contributor.authorFreed, Thomas Z.en_US
dc.contributor.departmentEnvironmental Science and Technologyen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2013-02-05T06:31:12Z
dc.date.available2013-02-05T06:31:12Z
dc.date.issued2012en_US
dc.description.abstractThe success of an invasion can be mediated by biological interactions (e.g. competition and predation). The newly invasive mosquito <italic>Aedes japonicus</italic> has established in the range of the competitively superior resident mosquito <italic> Aedes albopictus </italic> and the predatory indigenous mosquito <italic>Toxorhynchites rutilus</italic>. I tested the hypotheses that intraspecific aggregation, fluctuating resources, or keystone predation are facilitating the invasion of <italic>A. japonicus</italic> into the range of <italic>A. albopictus</italic>. Populations of <italic>A. japonicus</italic> and <italic>A. albopictus</italic> were negatively correlated with each other and intraspecifically aggregated in field studies, suggesting that aggregation is facilitating coexistence. Resources showed a high amount of spatial variability, and <italic>A. japonicus</italic> populations were strongly associated with resource-rich containers, providing evidence for the fluctuating resource hypothesis. A laboratory experiment showed that predation suppresses <italic>A. japonicus</italic> populations to a greater extent than interspecific competition when all three species co-occur, and provided no evidence for keystone predation.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/13487
dc.subject.pqcontrolledEcologyen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledBiologyen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledEntomologyen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledAggregationen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledAsian Bush mosquitoen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledAsian Tiger mosquitoen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledCompetitionen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledFluctuating Resourcesen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledKeystone predationen_US
dc.titleRelative roles of aggregation, competition, and predation in the North American invasion of the Asian Bush mosquito, Aedes japonicusen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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