Student Research Reports
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Analysis of the Relationship between Precipitation, Soil Moisture, and Mosquito Activity
Organization(s):STEM Enhancement in Earth Sciences
Country:United States of America
Student(s):Leah Manuel
Grade Level:Secondary School (grades 9-12, ages 14-18)
GLOBE Teacher:Cassie Soeffing
Contributors:Dr. Russanne Low, Dorian Janney
Report Type(s):International Virtual Science Symposium Report
Protocols:Mosquitoes, Soil Moisture - Gravimetric, Soil Moisture - SMAP Block Pattern
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Presentation Poster:
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Optional Badges:I am a Collaborator, I am a Data Scientist, I work with a STEM Professional
Language(s):English
Date Submitted:03/09/2020
This project focuses on citizen scientist data and maps constructed myself to agree with more basic conclusions regarding climatic factors and mosquito activity and can be utilized for larger research that cannot focus time and resources to accumulate residential data; while this report does not take into account many other factors, it provides fundamental analysis used in larger projects to reduce mosquito-borne disease and mosquito habitats.
Because Texas is especially dry during the summer, the height of mosquito season, data was conglomerated from Mosquito Habitat Mapper observations and soil moisture recordings (Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) data) from around 2015 to 2019 in Texas from the GLOBE Observer database; the points were then mapped through the ArcGIS site. Through the Giovanni application, precipitation maps were created for Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) data from regions in Texas to find the relationship between precipitation, soil moisture, and mosquito activity. From the data accumulated, it can be concluded that areas of higher soil moisture and higher precipitation, variables that usually have a positive correlation, are more likely to yield higher mosquito prevalence.