Quantity of Questing Blacklegged Ticks and Micro-scale Environmental Factors in Four Suburban Parks near New York City

Description

During 2017 and 2018, we collected the quantity of questing blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), also known as deer ticks, in 128 sampling sites of 5m by 5m in four state parks—Caumsett State Park, Connetquot River State Park, Rockefeller Park Preserve, and Fire Island National Seashore—around New York City. The blacklegged tick is the primary vector for the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, the pathogen of Lyme disease, in Northeastern United States. Using the flagging method, we collected and counted the numbers of adult and nymphal blacklegged ticks at each stie. Along with these quantities, we also recorded the geographic coordinates, ambient temperature, and relative humidity at the sampling sites. Using high-resolution aerial imagery and LiDAR data, we further derived land cover composition, ecotone boundary length, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), elevation, solar radiation, and other environmental factors. The data could be used to conduct longitudinal analysis at the same sampling sites as well as comparison with other sites. Ecologists and environmental scientists can use the data for spatiotemporal and statistical analyses of tick ecology at the local scale.

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