La Crosse encephalitis (LACE) is a neurodegenerative viral pediatric disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes in the Appalachian mountain range. It is characterized by a highly focal distribution with vector population being highly fragmented given the topographic nature of the area. The incidence of LACE has increased in the greater Appalachian region G. Wasserberg in Collaboration with B. Byrd from Western Carolina University are researching the putative causal association between anthropogenic landscape change and LACE emergence. In a previous study, this work showed that poor peridomestic conditions enhance LACE risk by modifying the habitat use patterns of its mosquito vectors (one domestic: Aedes triseriatus and two invasives: A. japonicus and A. albopictus; Tamini et al. 2021). Current studies are evaluating the mosquito and virus distribution along forest-to-field ecotones (the predominant landscape feature in this region) and tested experimentally the effect of tire introduction on the distribution and population dynamics of the disease vectors at the horizontal and vertical dimensions (Schwarz 2021). Importantly, work has shown that vertical habitat features (i.e., tree canopy height) are important in this vector system (Schwarz et al. 2020).
