Researchers from Wisconsin and Australia have found that climate change could expand the range of disease-spreading insects in coming decades, endangering human health.
Scientists from the UW-Madison and three Australian universities identified key biological and environmental factors affecting a type of mosquito that spreads dengue fever.
In the study, to be published online Jan. 28 in the British Ecological Society’s journal Functional Ecology, they reported that climate changes in Australia during the next 40 years and the insect’s ability to adapt to new conditions may allow the mosquitoes to expand into several populated regions of the continent.