02.03.2021
Linus Früh successfully defended his dissertation on the invasive mosquito species Aedes japonicus in Germany with a "magna cum laude" at the Ruhr University of Bochum on January 25th, 2021.
His thesis entitled "Ecology of
Aedes japonicus japonicus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Germany and modelling of its climate-dependant occurrence" was written under the supervision by Prof. Dr. Günter Schaub and Prof. Dr. Klemens Störtkuhl (Ruhr University of Bochum). At ZALF, Mr. Früh worked as part of Dr. Doreen Werner’s working group "Biodiversity of Aquatic and Semiaquatic Landscape Features" in Research Area 2 "Land Use and Governance".
His work focused on the temperature and land-use dependant occurrence of the invasive Asian bush mosquito in North-Rhine Westphalia. In addition, he investigated seven native microcrustacean species for their potential as antagonists of larvae of
Aedes japonicus. In collaboration with the working group “Simulation Methods and Data-driven Models” he compared five machine-learning methods regarding their ability to predict the climate-dependant potential occurrence of the Asian bush mosquito. Among other things, it was found that this mosquito species is active at temperatures between 10° and 30° C and occurs mainly at the transition zone between mixed forest and settlement areas, which Früh attributes to its ability to use artificial containers for breeding.
