Progress 11/21/19 to 09/30/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The diverse target audience for this project includes academic/university researchers, state government employees, and non-governmental organizations. Members of my lab and I publish our research in peer-reviewed scientific journals and present at scientific meetings, including the Entomological Society of America annual meeting and Eastern Branch annual meeting, the Ecological Society of America annual meeting, the American Mosquito Control Association annual meeting, and the Northeastern Mosquito Control Association annual meeting. The latter two meetings draw an audience not only of academic researchers, but of vector abatement specialists working for public health agencies. I am actively involved in local vector control associations including the Maine Vector-Borne Disease Working Group, where I share results with the Maine CDC and participate in organized state-wide mosquito and tick surviellance efforts. The findings of this research also may be of interest to outdoor workers, landowners, outdoor recreation enthusiasts, and tourists in Maine. I frequently engage in public outreach by leading seminars for layperson audiences, e.g., via the Maine Entomological Society, the Friends of Dr. Edith Marion Patch, the Orono Bog Boardwalk, the Maine Discovery Museum, the Bangor Land Trust, and the Maine Woodland Owners Association. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Members of my lab and I have presented our research findings at scientific meetings and published our results in peerreviewed scientific journals. We also conduct extensive scientific oureach to diverse public audiences such as K-12 students, amateur entomologist societies, vector control professionals, and other groups. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we will continue much of the same work on our recently funded projects. We have multiple manuscripts in preparation that we will be moving into the dissemination phase.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Under objective 1, my labconducts routine surveillance for mosquito disease vectors and invasive mosquitoes in Bangor, ME. The focus is on vectors for WNV, EEE, and Jamestown Canyon virus and also Ae. japonicus.The first WNV+mosquito pool ever to occur in Bangor was detected recently.Under objective 2, my lab is studying the invasion ecology of the blacklegged tick in Maine. Supported by a Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund grant and an NSF Population and Community Ecology grant, we are entering the third field season of a study of overwinter survival and energetics of blacklegged ticks along temperature and snowfall gradients in Maine.One manuscript currently is in preparation. We also are developing quantitative models of the spread of the blacklegged tick using a combination of field-collected tick occurrence data and tick-borne disease human case data. Under objective 3, I am leading aNIFA funded project about the cascading impacts of forest management practices (e.g., timber harvesting) on wildlife communities, abiotic conditions in the forest ecosystem, and blacklegged tick densities and pathogen infection prevalence. We have completed two of three planned field seasons for this project and we presented our findings at multiple professional meetings. One manuscript is under review and an additional two manuscripts are in preparation.
Publications
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