Urban socioeconomic, vegetation, and mosquito interactions in the United States: Current research and future directions

Abstract With the introduction and adaptation of non‐native mosquitoes to cities, vector‐borne diseases are emerging concerns in the United States of America. A growing body of literature suggests that mosquito infestations and associated diseases are a greater burden in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas within the heterogeneous urban ecosystem, but the ecological processes behind such spatial variation are not well understood. Urban plant communities that provide detrital resources to larval mosquitoes also vary across fine scales, with most field studies showing less abundant and diverse vegetation in lower income neighborhoods. We propose that socioeconomically aligned variation in plant communities is an important mechanism behind socioeconomically aligned mosquito infestations. However, few studies evaluating mosquito–plant interactions link experimental treatments to fine‐scale variation in urban plant community composition. Related knowledge on the interconnections between socioeconomics, mosquitoes, and vegetation is scattered among disciplines, from sociology to vector biology to plant ecology. We synthesize knowledge from diverse disciplinary sources to better understand urban mosquito ecology. We evaluate and summarize results from studies investigating socioeconomic influences on urban mosquitoes and residential vegetation in the continental United States. We then review studies examining the vegetation influences on larval mosquitoes. Synthesis across these previously disparate components of urban mosquito socioecology emphasizes knowledge gaps, including areas for future research to better integrate these topics. When considered together, the studies highlighted here contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of urban mosquito ecology than any one discipline could alone.