scholarly journals Detection and Establishment of Aedes notoscriptus (Diptera: Culicidae) Mosquitoes in Southern California, United States

Author(s):  
Marco E Metzger ◽  
J Wakoli Wekesa ◽  
Susanne Kluh ◽  
Kenn K Fujioka ◽  
Robert Saviskas ◽  
...  

Abstract Aedes notoscriptus (Skuse), the Australian backyard mosquito, is a pestiferous daytime-biting species native to Australia and the surrounding southwestern Pacific region. It is suspected to play a role in the transmission of several arboviruses and is considered a competent vector of dog heartworm, Dirofilaria immitis (Leidy). This highly adaptable mosquito thrives in natural and artificial water-holding containers in both forested and urbanized areas, from tropical to temperate climates, and has benefitted from a close association with humans, increasing in abundance within its native range. It invaded and successfully established in New Zealand as well as in previously unoccupied temperate and arid regions of Australia. Ae. notoscriptus was discovered in Los Angeles County, CA, in 2014, marking the first time this species had been found outside the southwestern Pacific region. By the end of 2019, immature and adult mosquitoes had been collected from 364 unique locations within 44 cities spanning three southern California counties. The discovery, establishment, and rapid spread of this species in urban areas may signal the global movement and advent of a new invasive container-inhabiting species. The biting nuisance, public health, and veterinary health implications associated with the invasion of southern California by this mosquito are discussed.

Experiment ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 297-316
Author(s):  
Lorin Johnson ◽  
Donald Bradburn

In the 1970s and 1980s, Los Angeles audiences saw Soviet defectors Mikhail Baryshnikov, Alexander Godunov, Natalia Makarova, and Rudolf Nureyev in the prime of their careers at the Hollywood Bowl, The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Greek Theater. Dance photographer Donald Dale Bradburn, a local Southern California dancer describes his behind-the-scenes access to these dancers in this interview. Perfectly positioned as Dance Magazine’s Southern California correspondent, Bradburn offers a candid appraisal of the Southern California appeal for such high-power Russian artists as well as their impact on the arts of Los Angeles. An intimate view of Russian dancers practicing their craft on Los Angeles stages, Bradburn’s interview is illustrated by fourteen of his photographs, published for the first time in this issue of Experiment.


1996 ◽  
Vol 86 (5) ◽  
pp. 1645-1649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris H. Cramer ◽  
Mark D. Petersen

Abstract Hazard deaggregation at each grid point of a probabilistic seismic hazard map can provide maps of the most probable seismic source distance and magnitude. Maps of predominant seismic source distance and magnitude for PGA, and 5% damped spectral acceleration (SA) at 0.3-, 1.0-, and 2.0-sec periods are produced for the first time for Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura counties in southern California. These maps show that large earthquakes on faults local to any site generally dominate the 10% probability of exceedence in 50- and 100-yr hazards in southern California. Major faults, like the San Andreas, San Jacinto, and Elsinore faults, dominate mainly in their vicinity. At spectral periods beyond 2 sec, earthquakes on these major faults can dominate out to larger distances.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 4102
Author(s):  
Red Willow Coleman ◽  
Natasha Stavros ◽  
Glynn Hulley ◽  
Nicholas Parazoo

It is important to understand the distribution of irrigated and non-irrigated vegetation in rapidly expanding urban areas that are experiencing climate-induced changes in water availability, such as Los Angeles, California. Mapping irrigated vegetation in Los Angeles is necessary for developing sustainable water use practices and accurately accounting for the megacity’s carbon exchange and water balance changes. However, pre-existing maps of irrigated vegetation are largely limited to agricultural regions and are too coarse to resolve heterogeneous urban landscapes. Previous research suggests that irrigation has a strong cooling effect on vegetation, especially in semi-arid environments. The July 2018 launch of the ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) offers an opportunity to test this hypothesis using retrieved land surface temperature (LST) data in complex, heterogeneous urban/non-urban environments. In this study, we leverage Landsat 8 optical imagery and 30 m sharpened afternoon summertime ECOSTRESS LST, then apply very high-resolution (0.6–10 m) vegetation fraction weighting to produce a map of irrigated and non-irrigated vegetation in Los Angeles. This classification was compared to other classifications using different combinations of sensors in order to offer a preliminary accuracy and uncertainty assessment. This approach verifies that ECOSTRESS LST data provides an accurate map (98.2% accuracy) of irrigated urban vegetation in southern California that has the potential to reduce uncertainties in regional carbon and hydrological cycle models.


2014 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
pp. 56-63
Author(s):  
Josh Sides

In 1916, Cornelius Birket Johnson, a Los Angeles fruit farmer, killed the last known grizzly bear in Southern California and the second-to last confirmed grizzly bear in the entire state of California. Johnson was neither a sportsman nor a glory hound; he simply hunted down the animal that had been trampling through his orchard for three nights in a row, feasting on his grape harvest and leaving big enough tracks to make him worry for the safety of his wife and two young daughters. That Johnson’s quarry was a grizzly bear made his pastoral life in Big Tujunga Canyon suddenly very complicated. It also precipitated a quagmire involving a violent Scottish taxidermist, a noted California zoologist, Los Angeles museum administrators, and the pioneering mammalogist and Smithsonian curator Clinton Hart Merriam. As Frank S. Daggett, the founding director of the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art, wrote in the midst of the controversy: “I do not recollect ever meeting a case where scientists, crooks, and laymen were so inextricably mingled.” The extermination of a species, it turned out, could bring out the worst in people.


1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela I. Erickson

In 1995, the Latina adolescent birth rate surpassed that of African Americans for the first time. This article investigates cultural and social factors affecting the initiation of sexual intercourse among Latina adolescent mothers in Los Angeles. The data are from life history interviews with forty young mothers and their partners conducted in 1994 to 1997. Results suggest that sexual intercourse is initiated within the context of the couple's developing relationship, and that the course of relationships is highly scripted. Men pressure for sex and women resist. Women should be ignorant about sex, but control access to intercourse. Sex is never discussed. Thus, it is unexpected, and contraception other than withdrawal is not used. This script places young Latinas at enormous risk for pregnancy and STDs.


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