How Mosquitoes are an essential part of our ecosystem?

The tiny me,

Not as tiniest in my role you think,

My support to the ecosystem is praiseworthy and commendable,

Sad part,

Humans don’t include my science reference of the ecosystem.

Mosquitoes –

Are they important in our ecosystem? If Important, why do humans hate it? If the answer is just because mosquito bites and spread diseases? (or) If it’s considered only as blood-thirsty insects? Then the question arises, Do all mosquitoes bite?

What if there are no mosquitoes in the world? Would it be like heaven? It’s an absolute Yes for Humans, But what about other creatures? Is there any creature dependent on mosquitoes? what is the ramification for this action?

Overview

Mosquitoes have been around in this world for more than 100 million years, which means a lot longer than humans. It had been survived as many environmental changes and evolved over time. There are almost 3,500 varieties of mosquito of which only 100 species bite Human and other animals. They are highly dangerous to Human beings as they are the vector for many diseases such as Malaria (Anopheles), Dengue and Yellow fever (Aedes). None of the mosquitoes themselves causes any diseases but they act as carriers for many.

These tiny blood-sucking insects used to bite an infected person or animal and when it feeds on a healthy person afterwards, the disease is being spread. More than thousands of people get infected and the majority of the population among them are deceased per year.

Statistics says that in 2015, there were hundreds of millions of cases of malaria reported, and nearly 500,000 deaths because of Malaria. Around 30,000 people died because of yellow fever. So undoubtfully Mosquitoes are vicious for Humankind.

Photo credit – https://guardian.ng

Scientists across the world came up with ideas of destroying the species of mosquitoes with different methods. Mosquito spray is one such failure model as it destroys most of the important flies and organism along with it. Some say, genetically modified male mosquitoes will help in reducing the mosquito population as it doesn’t allow its next generation to stay longer in this word.

But still, most of the scientist doesn’t support for it completely as it brings a break in our Eco-system. Apart from spreading diseases, they believe that mosquitos are important in our ecosystem and its contribution to the ecosystem is markable.

What does mosquito do? How is it contributing to our ecosystem?

Behind all the beautiful flowers:

Mosquito feed on nectar for energy. While most of the female mosquitoes depend on blood to energize themselves and to get necessary proteins to lay eggs, Some Female mosquitoes and numerous numbers of male mosquito depend on nectar for energy. In the process of mosquitoes feeding on nectars, it helps to pollinate flowers which is important to generate variation and viable offspring of those.

Photo credit: https://www.telegraphindia.com

Diet for animals and fishes:

Mosquitoes are prey for many birds, insect, lizards, salamander and Bats especially. Research says that a bat can eat around 600 mosquitoes in an hour. It is a high source of diet for them. Not only mosquitoes but its larvae too play an important role in the aquatic food chain. According to Dr Gilbert Waldbauer in “The Handy Bug Answer Book,” Mosquito larvae are filter feeders that strain tiny organic particles such as unicellular algae from the water and convert them to the tissues of their own bodies, which are, in turn, eaten by aquatic beings such as fish. Thus, it helps to recycle organic matter into nutrient-packed food for fishes.

Mosquitoes also feed on dead insects that drown in the water and its larvae feed on the waste products, making nutrients such as nitrogen available for the plant community to thrive. Thus, the elimination of those mosquitoes might affect plant growth in those areas.

Even though mosquitoes are not the only source of food for them and they may depend on other sources. Researchers say that these animals don’t go and find alternative prey easily rather they try to adapt or die.

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For example – Mosquitoes on the Arctic

Arctic summers are short and mosquito season is brief. Arctic mosquitoes depend on the blood of animals such as caribou and musk ox to survive and reproduce. Mosquitoes in arctic fly in thick swarms and have created a huge part of biomass there. One article of “Nature” references these huge swarms of mosquitoes in Arctic tundra, that if we try to destroy its species then, migratory birds that nest in the tundra could drop by more than 50% without mosquitoes to eat. So, the bottom line is that even if it’s in the lower level of the food chain it can bring adverse impact on other species dependent on them.

A guard in the forest:

In addition, there are some theories that state that mosquitoes are very helpful in protecting rain forest and Dense forests. Amazon rain forest especially being protected by these tiny creatures just because these are so deadly and annoying to Humans who are trying to cut down their limit.

Conclusion

Apart from all the good and bad causes of mosquito. One of the important reasons that scientist didn’t want to wipe off mosquito population is that they believe mosquito’s saliva may have some potential use for the treatment of some deadliest disease of humans and much more is there to research about that.

Thus, the role of mosquitoes in the ecosystem is very important. Without them, many of the species depend on that will be under threat. Humans need to take precautionary measures to keep them away from mosquitoes and its diseases. They need to get the vaccination, use mosquito repellent cream, by keeping their surrounding neat and clean and so on. Eradicating mosquitoes won’t be a wise solution. Even if many scientists argue that mosquitoes are not important, and nature can evolve without it. But still, they are unaware of the exact consequences of wiping off them from their food chain.

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