Influence of human population density on spatial distribution patterns of environmental suitability for triatomine vectors of Chagas disease

Abstract

Previous work on Chagas Disease disease at large spatial scales has not explored how interaction with humans can affect projections for geographical distribution of environmental suitability of vector species. Here, we compare niche-based species distribution models with climatic variables as predictors (SDMclim) and with climatic variables + human population density (SDMHuman). Our results show that accounting for human population density helps refine the models to finer geographical scales. Also, different spatial patterns of accumulated environmental suitability were obtained by SDMclim and SDMHuman. Moreover, projections were more accurate for SDMHuman than for SDMclim. Our results show that considering human populations in SDMs for epidemiologically relevant triatomiane species can improve our understanding of macroecology and biogeography of environmental suitability for vectors of Chagas disease.