Influence of Tree Density Upon the Spatial Distribution of Mosquito Populations Vivek Athipatla, Ankit Chandra, Shayna Juimo-Kamga, Isabella List, Emmie Shockley Mentors: Rusty Low, Cassie Soeffing, Peder Nelson SEES Earth System Explorer mentors; Dr. Rusanne Low, Ms. Cassie Soeffing, Mr. Peder Nelson, Dr. Erika Podest, Andrew Clark The material contained in this poster is based upon work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) cooperative agreements NNX16AE28A to the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) for the NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC) and NNX16AB89A to the University of Texas Austin for the STEM Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASA. Acknowledgements These three graphs show the concentrations of different entities in the Houston area. Figure A shows the tree density throughout the area, Figure B shows the land cover percentages and urbanization, and Figure C shows the mosquito density within Houston. Figure A and Figure B are somewhat opposites because in places where urbanization is high, it usually means that the tree density is lower. In Figure C, it is also clear that there are more mosquitoes in the center of the metroplex, which is where there are more people to act as a vector for disease spread. By comparing these graphs with each other, it becomes very clear that there are more mosquitoes in places where the tree density is lower and the urbanization is higher. This completely contradicts our hypothesis. There are many explanations for this but the one that makes the most sense is that mosquitoes are more abundant in places where there are more people as disease vectors. And more people are located in the most urbanized areas, which is usually in the middle of the city and in places where construction has prohibited the growth of trees. Therefore, our conclusion is not that less trees leads to more mosquitoes, but that increased urbanization leads to more mosquitoes. And a side effect of that increased urbanization is a decrease in trees. Conclusions From this data, it can de determined that there is both a positive correlation between urbanization and mosquitoes, and a negative correlation between tree density and mosquitoes. This data can be used in determining which locations are at the highest risk for mosquito borne illnesses. Places with high levels of urbanization are more likely to host more significant mosquito populations, and thus the citizens of these areas are at higher risk. In the future, this experiment can be expanded by choosing different locations with more points (I.e. six locations in the Las Vegas area). The points of landcover could then be analyzed in a similar process to determine results. We could then cross reference this data to our current data to see if it is similar. This data refutes the previous hypothesis where it was predicted that the higher the tree density, the higher the mosquito population. Discussion Mosquitoes are vectors for pathogens such as West Nile Virus, Dengue (DV), Zika (ZIKV), and Malaria. Determining the abiotic factors that contribute to the spread of these diseases and the conditions under which mosquito habitats thrive are essential to mitigating mosquito populations and mosquitos as a public health threat. This study aims to assess the effect of tree density and tree concentration on mosquito populations and the correlation between tree density and mosquito species composition. Using photos collected from NASA Globe Observer, we investigated three different three by three- kilometer areas of interests representing various ecological settings within the surrounding Houston, Texas area. These photos were then analyzed using a GitHub program that assessed both tree number and density within each area. This data was then compared to a repres