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Impact on Mosquitos

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Impact on Mosquitos
Impact of amphibians on mosquitoes It is important for every ecosystem to maintain a balance between all the food chains so that nature can maintain its balance. Although natural ecosystems are under diverse challenges from anthropogenic activities, the ecological impacts of such processes often are unclear. Some “threats” may be worse than we think, but others may be less harmful. For example, invasive species disrupt the functioning of important components of natural ecosystems in many ways, including predation, competition, and disease transfer. (Rolls 1969). Indeed, conventional wisdom interprets any change wrought by invasive taxa as negative, in that it alters an existing (“natural”) state. However, some changes wrought by invasive taxa might be seen as ‘‘good’’ in ecological terms, for example if they reduce the impact of a previous invader (e.g. Cactoblastis vs. prickly pear: Freeman 1992) or if the new invader fulfils an important ecological role (e.g. pollination, predation) previously performed by a now-extinct taxon (Flannery 1994; Donlan et al. 2005). Disease transfer agents are an immense threat to human health and pests are the most common disease transfer vectors. Mosquitoes are one of the most efficient and hazardous transfer vectors that pose a constant threat for human health as they grow rapidly in very unlikely conditions as well. Over recent years, in order to overcome this threat and to find a solution to this problem researchers and scientists have done serious work. If we are able to find out the reasons why and how mosquitoes survive, multiply and spread then we will be able to control their growth and limit the trouble they cause to both humans and wild life. Although when research on such subjects undergoes, we tend to ignore the positive impacts of the invasive species and focus too much on their negative aspects whereas there can be some positive aspects that can prove


Cited: Daszak, P., Cunningham, A.A., Hyatt, A.D. 2003. Infection disease and amphibian population declines. Diversity and Distribution. 9:141-150 Hopkins,W. 2012. Wildlife Ecotoxicology and Physiological Ecology Program. The Virgin Tech Press. Blackburg. Rubbo, M., Lanterman, J.L., Falco, R.C., and Daniels, T.J. 2011. The influence of amphibian on mosquitoes in seasonal pools: can wetlands protection help to minimize disease risk? Wetland. 31:7999-804 Gibbons, J.W., Winne, C.T., Scott, D.E., Willson, J.D., Glaudas, X., Andrew, K.M., Todd, B.D., Fredewas, L.K., Wilkinson, L., Tasalliagos, R.N., Harper, S.J., Greene, J.L., Tuberville, T.D., Metts, B.S, and Dorcas, M.E. 2006. Remarkable amphibiban biomass and abundant isolated wetland: Implications for wetland conversation. Conversation of biology. 20:1457-1465 Shine,R. 2006. The ecological impact of invasive cane toad( Bufo marinus) in Australia. University of Sydney Press.

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