Forest edge landscape context affects mosquito community composition and risk of pathogen emergence.

Forest edges, where humans, mosquitoes, and wildlife interact, may serve as a nexus for zoonotic arbovirus exchange. Although often treated as uniform interfaces, the landscape context of edge habitats can greatly impact ecological interactions. Here, we investigated how the landscape context of forest edges shapes mosquito community structure in an Amazon rainforest reserve near the city of Manaus, Brazil, using hand-nets to sample mosquitoes at three distinct forest edge types. Sampling sites were situated at edges bordering urban land cover, rural land cover, and natural treefall gaps, while sites in continuous forest served as controls. Community composition differed substantially among edge types, with rural edges supporting the highest species diversity. Rural edges also provided suitable habitat for forest specialists, including key sylvatic vectors, of which Haemagogus janthinomys was the most abundant species sampled overall. Our findings emphasize the importance of landscape context in assessing pathogen emergence risk at forest edges.

Is zoonotic Plasmodium vivax malaria an obstacle for disease elimination?

BACKGROUND: The groundwork for malaria elimination does not currently consider the potential of Plasmodium zoonotic cycles that involve non-human primates (NHPs) in sylvatic environments. Since vivax malaria is less responsive to control measures, finding Plasmodium vivax infected NHPs adds even more concern. METHODS: Both Free-living monkeys in forest fragments inside the urban area and captive monkeys from a local zoo had blood samples tested for Plasmodium species. RESULTS: In this study, among the Neotropical monkeys tested, three (4.4%), one captive and two free-living, were found to be naturally infected by P. vivax. CONCLUSION: This important finding indicates that it is necessary to estimate the extent to which P. vivax NHP infection contributes to the maintenance of malaria transmission to humans. Therefore, the discussion on wildlife conservation and management must be incorporated into the malaria elimination agenda.

Microclimate and the vertical stratification of potential bridge vectors of mosquito­borne viruses captured by nets and ovitraps in a central Amazonian forest bordering Manaus, Brazil.

In the Americas, some mosquito-borne viruses such as Zika, chikungunya, and dengue circulate among humans in urban transmission cycles, while others, including yellow fever and Mayaro, circulate among monkeys in sylvatic cycles. The intersection of humans and wildlife at forest edges creates risk for zoonotic virus exchange. We built a scaffold tower at the edge of a treefall gap in rainforest bordering Manaus, Brazil, to identify vectors that may bridge transmission between humans and monkeys. We vertically sampled diurnally active, anthropophilic mosquitoes using handheld nets at 0, 5, and 9 m and container-breeding mosquitoes in ovitraps at 0, 5, 10, and 15 m. Haemagogus janthinomys and Psorophora amazonica were present in high relative abundance in nets at each height sampled, while anthropophilic species were uncommon in ovitraps. Hg. janthinomys was more abundant at elevated heights than at ground level, while Ps. amazonica abundance was not significantly stratified across heights. The presence of each species increased with increasing 7-day rainfall lagged at 1 week, and at 1 and 4 weeks prior to collection, respectively. In addition, Hg. janthinomys was most frequently collected at 29.9 °C, irrespective of height. These data provide insight into the potential role of each species as bridge vectors.

Ketal Sugar Conversion Into Green Hydrocarbons by Faujasite Zeolite in a Typical Catalytic Cracking Process.

Fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) converts hydrocarbons in the presence of a catalyst based on faujasite zeolite (USY and REY). While hydrocarbon is poorly reactive, biomass and its derived compounds are highly functionalized and not suitable to a typical FCC process. To overcome this limitation biomass was first converted into a dense and stable bio-crude composed mainly of ketal-sugar derivatives by using acetone in diluted acid. Here, a representative compound of this bio-crude, 1,2:3,5-di-O-isopropylidene-α-D-xylofuranose (DX) in n-hexane, was converted by USY and a commercial FCC catalyst containing USY, at 500°C, in a fixed bed and fluidized bed reactors, respectively. Faujasite Y is very efficient in converting DX. More than 95% conversion was observed in all tests. Over 60 wt.% was liquid products, followed by gas products and only around 10% or less in coke. The higher the catalyst activity the greater the aromatics in the liquid products and yet higher coke yields were observed. In particular, simulating more practical application conditions: using deactivated catalyst in a fluidized bed reactor, improved green hydrocarbons production (mono-aromatic up to 10 carbons and light hydrocarbon up to eight carbons) and unprecedented lower coke yield (≈5 wt.%) for bio-feeds. The present results further suggest that catalyst will play a primary role to convert the bio-crude into target hydrocarbons and overcome the transition of a non-renewable to a renewable refinery feed.