Investigating the Ecology of West Nile Virus in the United States
This teaching module includes two different approaches. The goal of both approaches is to introduce WNV biology and ecology. The Hometown Approach uses online data and maps to generate and test hypotheses about interactions between an emerging disease organism and its environment. The Structured Approach/ Structured Exercises present data on reported cases and biological and environmental predictors of WNV to interpret and analyze. The instructor can decide which approach to use depending on available time, type of class (freshmen vs. upperclassmen; majors vs. non-majors; lecture vs. lab), availability of computers, and Internet access.
| Primary or BEN resource type | |
|---|---|
| Secondary resource type | |
| Url | You must be logged in to access all resource information. |
| Associated files | You must be logged in to access all resource information. |
| Format | |
| Ecological Core Concept | |
| Classification | |
| Drought & Water-Ecosystem Services Collection | Off |
| Conservation Targets Under Global Change Collection | Off |
| Big Data Collection | On |
| Editor's Choice | No |
| Audience | |
| Pedagogical Use Description | Students will use maps, online databases, and peer-reviewed literature to: (1) learn background information on WNV (history of emergence in the US; life cycle, hosts, and vectors; different forms of WNV disease and susceptibility of various human age groups) and (2) generate and test hypotheses correlating human, avian, and mosquito WNV infection with avian biodiversity, presence/abundance of different avian hosts, climatology, topography, land use, and presence of specific habitats such as wetlands (Hometown Approach). Use either Supplements (in Resource Files) or Internet databases to analyze data in graphs and interpret maps to answer questions (Structured Approach). |
| Keywords | Abiotic, biotic, environmental factors, biodiversity, epidemiology, TIEE |
| Key taxa | Flavivridae |
| Life science discipline (subject) | |
| Primary Author Controlled Name | |
| Primary Author Affiliation | Hampton University |
| Primary Author email | barbara.abraham@hamptonu.edu |
| Secondary Author Name(s) | Josephine Rodriguez |
| Secondary Author Affiliation(s) | National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Secondary Author Email(s) | rodriguez@nceas.ucsb.edu |
| Submitter Name | Teresa Mourad |
| Submitter Email | teresa@esa.org |
| Rights | The Ecological Society of America (ESA) holds the copyright for TIEE Volume 8, and the authors retain the copyright for the content of individual contributions (although some text, figures, and data sets may bear further copyright notice). No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Use solely at one's own institution with no intent for profit is excluded from the preceding copyright restriction, unless otherwise noted. Proper credit to this publication must be included in your lecture or laboratory course materials (print, electronic, or other means of reproduction) for each use. |
| Review Status | |
| Resource Editor | Unknown |
| Reviewer A | Unknown |
| Reviewer B | Unknown |
| Date Of Record Submission | 2012-09-01 |
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