Abstract
Environmental changes including urbanization significantly influence the spatial distribution and the ecology of mosquito vectors, such as Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti, which are responsible of the transmitting of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika arboviruses. While studies often focus on breeding site typology, the physicochemical characteristics of these habitats remain underexplored, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. This study investigates (i) the larval ecology of Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti in Franceville, an equatorial forest region undergoing urbanization, south-eastern Gabon, and (ii) emphasizing habitat typology and the physicochemical attributes influencing their proliferation. Field larval surveys were conducted across central, intermediate, and peripheral settings of the town, documenting the diversity of larval habitats and their physical features (nature, substrate material and size) and the mosquito species recovered. Water samples were analysed to determine physicochemical properties including pH, salinity, conductivity, and the presence of organic matter. The results reveal significant physicochemical heterogeneity across settings, with central urban areas more characterised by plastic (12.9%) and rubber (10.7%) breeding sites while peripheral areas were dominated by cement microhabitats (15.7%). Notably, the findings have clarified the ecological niche of these two species (Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti), revealing a preference for anthropogenic water bodies composed of rubber, plastic, or cement materials, with small to medium surface areas (< 1,250 cm2) and low to medium salinity levels (< 0.4 ppt). These findings underscore the importance of integrating physicochemical analyses into vector ecology studies to enhance our understanding of vector proliferation in rapidly urbanizing regions. By addressing this knowledge gap, the study provides critical insights to inform public health strategies and urban planning, offering a foundation for targeted vector control interventions.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.
Abbreviations
- PCA:
Principal component analysis
- GLM:
Generalized linear model
References
Djiappi-Tchamen, B. et al. Aedes mosquito distribution along a transect from rural to urban settings in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Insects 12(9), 819 (2021).
Obame-Nkoghe, J. et al. Urban green spaces and vector-borne disease risk in Africa: The case of an unclean forested park in libreville (Gabon, Central Africa). Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 20(10), 5774 (2023).
Medeiros-Sousa, A. R. et al. Influence of water’s physical and chemical parameters on mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) assemblages in larval habitats in urban parks of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Acta Trop. 205, 105394 (2020).
Herath, J. M. K., De Silva, W. P. P., Weeraratne, T. C. & Karunaratne, S. P. Breeding habitat preference of the dengue vector mosquitoes aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus from urban, semiurban, and rural areas in Kurunegala District, Sri Lanka. J. Trop. Med. 2024(1), 4123543 (2024).
Ngoagouni, C., Kamgang, B., Nakouné, E., Paupy, C. & Kazanji, M. Invasion of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) into central Africa: What consequences for emerging diseases?. Parasit. Vectors. 8, 1–7 (2015).
Ovono, P. O., Gatarasi, T., Minko, D. O., Koumagoye, D. M. & Kevers, C. Etude de la dynamique des populations d’insectes sur la culture du riz NERICA dans les conditions du Masuku, Sud-Est du Gabon (Franceville). Int. J. Biol. Chem. Sci. 8(1), 218–236 (2014).
Cockerell, T. D. A. The African mosquitoes: Mosquitoes of the Ethiopian Region III. Culicine adults and pupae. By F. W. Edwards. British Museum, 1941. 499 pp.. Science 96(2502), 537–538 (1942).
Huang, Y. M. The subgenus Stegomyia of Aedes in the Afrotropical Region with keys to the species (Diptera: Culicidae). Zootaxa 700(1), 1–120 (2004).
Stewart Ibarra, A. M. et al. A social-ecological analysis of community perceptions of dengue fever and Aedes aegypti in Machala, Ecuador. BMC Public Health 4(14), 1135 (2014).
Pagès, F. et al. Aedes albopictus mosquito: The main vector of the 2007 Chikungunya outbreak in Gabon. PLoS ONE 4(3), e4691 (2009).
Paupy, C. et al. Comparative role of Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti in the emergence of Dengue and Chikungunya in central Africa. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. Larchmt. N. 10(3), 259–266 (2010).
Delatte, H. et al. Blood-Feeding Behavior of Aedes albopictus, a Vector of Chikungunya on La Réunion. Vector-Borne Zoonotic Dis. 10(3), 249–258 (2010).
Deerman, H. & Yee, D. A. Competitive interactions with Aedes albopictus alter the nutrient content of Aedes aegypti. Med. Vet. Entomol. 37(4), 715–722 (2023).
Yang, B. et al. Modelling distributions of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus using climate, host density and interspecies competition. PLoS Negl. Trop Dis. 15(3), e0009063 (2021).
Multini, L. C. et al. The influence of the pH and salinity of water in breeding sites on the occurrence and community composition of immature mosquitoes in the green belt of the City of São Paulo, Brazil. Insects 12(9), 797 (2021).
Ouédraogo, W. M. et al. Impact of physicochemical parameters of Aedes aegypti breeding habitats on mosquito productivity and the size of emerged adult mosquitoes in Ouagadougou City, Burkina Faso. Parasit. Vectors. 15(1), 478 (2022).
Ruairuen, W., Amnakmanee, K., Primprao, O. & Boonrod, T. Effect of ecological factors and breeding habitat types on Culicine larvae occurrence and abundance in residential areas Southern Thailand. Acta Trop. 234, 106630 (2022).
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the institutions that helped us carry out this study, in particular the Interdisciplinary Centre for Medical Research of Franceville (CIRMF) and the Masuku University of Science and Technology (USTM), for the technical support they provided. We would particularly like to thank the Biology Department of the Faculty of Science of the USTM, and the staff of the Health Ecology Research Unit of the CIRMF and the Zoology and Entomology Department of the UFS, who welcomed us.
Funding
This study has been conducted with the financial support of the European Union (Grant no. ARISE-PP-FA-072 to JON), through the African Research Initiative for Scientific Excellence (ARISE), pilot program. ARISE is implemented by the African Academy of Sciences with support from the European Commission and the African Union Commission. This study also benefited from the internal support of the University of the Free State, South Africa (to PVO), for English editing services in addition to the salary support provided to the corresponding author by the University of Science and Technology of Masuku and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Medical Research, Gabon. We benefited from the support GDRI-GRAVIR network (led by CP) in conceptualizing the study. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of the authors and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union, the African Academy of Sciences, the African Union Commission, or the institutions to which the authors are affiliated. The funders played no role in the design of the study, the collection and analysis of the data, the decision to publish or the preparation of the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Conceptualisation: JO-N, PK, CP; Data curation: NYK, AOO, JO-N, FMK, BGN, MFN, LCNN, PY, NMLP; Formal analysis: JO-N, AOO, YON, NYK, FMK, REO; Data visualization: FMK, LEM, PVO, REO, JO-N; First article drafting: JO-N, FMK, AOO; Reviewing and editing: PK, PVO, LEM, YON, Acquisition of funding: JO-N, PVO.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Reprints and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Obame-Nkoghe, J., Moudoumi Kondji, F., Niangui, B.G. et al. Physicochemical and typological insights into Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti larval habitats in a sub-Saharan African urban gradient setting.
Sci Rep (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-32398-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-32398-9
Keywords
Aedes
- Larval habitats
- Physicochemical features
- African urban setting
- Gabon
- Arbovirus transmission
Source: Ecology - nature.com
