Studying the Impacts of Land Use Changes on the Occurrence of Vector Mosquitoes in Sabah, Malaysia

Land use changes as a result of infrastructural and agricultural development suchas construction of forest field centre, establishment of large-scale oil palmplantations, and logging activities are increasing in Malaysia. These activitieslead to environmental disturbances and may affect the ecological balance ofmany organisms. Mosquitoes are very sensitive to environmental changes sincetheir diversity, distribution and abundance are influenced by even small changesin environmental conditions such as availability of suitable breeding sites.Mosquitoes from three different sites of varying disturbance levels at the SAFE Project experimental areas in eastern Sabah i.e., old growth forest (OG), loggedforest (LFE) and heavily logged forest (Block B) were collected and identified tospecies level. Shannon-Wiener index and Simpson index of diversity werecalculated and the diversity value were highest in LFE (H’= 0.4434, 1/D= 1.3427)and the least in Block B (H’= 0.3260, 1/D= 1.1627). A similar trend was detectedin terms of mosquito abundance with the highest abundance recorded in LFE andthe least in Block B. Results of the present study generally suggest that land usechanges do affect mosquito diversity and abundance by altering, creating orproviding places for the adult mosquitoes to breed.