MosquitoDB: Mosquitoes of the Great Lakes region and their potential responses to climate change
Grants/Fellowships in support:
2009 National Commission on Energy Policy
Project Overview:
Amateurs and professionals collect biological observations of many species in many places, but often this information is lost or kept private for lack of a suitable data repository. A variety of database platforms are arising to enable sharing of observational data. The research opportunities from large databases of ecological observations are considerable
Mosquitoes are one group of organisms that are consistently monitored across the United States by a disparate group of organizations, but, historically, these organizations have not shared their information. This lack of sharing prevents novel research on the dynamics of disease vectors and nuisance biters of economic importance.
We constructed MosquitoDB, a database for observational data of mosquitoes built using the DarwinCore platform for biological observations. The initial focus of MosquitoDB is the Great Lakes region. To populate the database, we collated observational data from various mosquito abatement and disease control groups throughout the region.
At last count, the scope of the project included 478,608 records from 970 counties comprising more than 7 million mosquitoes of 106 species.
Activities Conducted:
2009 National Commission on Energy Policy
Project Overview:
Amateurs and professionals collect biological observations of many species in many places, but often this information is lost or kept private for lack of a suitable data repository. A variety of database platforms are arising to enable sharing of observational data. The research opportunities from large databases of ecological observations are considerable
Mosquitoes are one group of organisms that are consistently monitored across the United States by a disparate group of organizations, but, historically, these organizations have not shared their information. This lack of sharing prevents novel research on the dynamics of disease vectors and nuisance biters of economic importance.
We constructed MosquitoDB, a database for observational data of mosquitoes built using the DarwinCore platform for biological observations. The initial focus of MosquitoDB is the Great Lakes region. To populate the database, we collated observational data from various mosquito abatement and disease control groups throughout the region.
At last count, the scope of the project included 478,608 records from 970 counties comprising more than 7 million mosquitoes of 106 species.
Activities Conducted:
- Schema development (DarwinCore)
- Database creation and management (SQL)
- Raw record recruitment, collation, and ingestion
- Climate envelope modeling to project future occupancy of disease vectors under climate change;
- Time-series analysis of changes in the abundance of mosquito species
- Analysis of future public health implications for mosquito-borne disease
