3. Synopsis of the Thesis
3.3 Authors´ Contribution to the Articles Article 1:
Fischer D, Thomas S.M., Niemitz F., Reineking B., Beierkuhnlein C. (2011): Projection of climatic suitability for Aedes albopictus Skuse (Culicidae) in Europe under climate change conditions. Global and Planetary Change 78, 54‐64. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2011.05.008
Stephanie Thomas, Franziska Niemitz and Carl Beierkuhnlein had the initial idea of climate change projections for Ae. albopictus with the regional focus of Bavaria. Franziska Niemitz carried out first analyses and wrote a first draft as part of her Master thesis. She organized an initial data set of species presence records. Stephanie Thomas completed this data set with a search for additional infestations of the species from the year 2003 onwards and pro‐
vided these references in the Supplemental Material. She wrote main parts of the intro‐
duction, especially the parts concerning the species’ ecology. Dominik Fischer implemented the species distribution models and future projections for whole Europe and tested of non‐
analogue climatic conditions by Multivariate Environmental Surface analysis. He wrote the main parts of the results, discussion and conclusion and prepared the figures. Dominik Fischer and Björn Reineking wrote the methodology chapter and generated the tables. Addi‐
tionally, Björn Reineking tested the data sets for niche similarity and provided expertise for further issues concerning the modelling procedure. Björn Reineking and Carl Beierkuhnlein (both supervisors of the Master thesis from Franziska Niemitz) gave both critically comments on the Article and were responsible for the final editing.
Article 2
Fischer D., Thomas S.M., Neteler M., Tjaden N.B., Beierkuhnlein C. (2013): Climatic suita‐
bility of Aedes albopictus in Europe referring to climate change projections: Comparison of mechanistic and correlative niche modelling approaches. Eurosurveillance. Accepted 30/07/13
Stephanie Thomas had the idea to compare all previous approaches and results re‐
Synopsis of the Thesis
Fischer selected the specific approaches given in the six studies. Stephanie Thomas compiled study region, model approach, input data, model validation and details regarding the climate projection of the different studies (Table 1) and gave detailed information to variables and methods used (Table 2). Dominik Fischer and Nils Tjaden created the maps. Dominik Fischer and Stephanie Thomas wrote the Article. Carl Beierkuhnlein and Markus Neteler gave criti‐
cally comments on the Article.
Article 3:
Thomas S.M., Obermayr U., Fischer D., Kreyling J., Beierkuhnlein C. (2012) Low tempera‐
ture threshold for egg survival of a post‐diapause and non‐diapause European aedine strain, Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae). Parasites & Vectors, 5 (100).
doi:10.1186/1756‐3305‐5‐100
Stephanie Thomas designed the study, carried out the cold treatment of eggs, per‐
formed the statistical analysis and wrote the Article. Ulla Obermayr carried out the induction of diapause in mosquito eggs and wrote the subchapter “Induction of diapausing eggs”.
Jürgen Kreyling conceived of the study design and participated in the performance of the statistical analysis. Carl Beierkuhnlein, Jürgen Kreyling and Dominik Fischer gave critical comments on the Article.
Article 4:
Thomas S.M., Fischer D., Fleischmann S., Bittner T., Beierkuhnlein C. (2011): Risk assess‐
ment of dengue virus amplification in Europe based on spatio‐temporal high resolution climate change projections. Erdkunde 65, 137‐150. doi:10.3112/erdkunde.2011.02.03
Stephanie Thomas and Dominik Fischer contributed equally to this work. Stephanie Thomas had the idea of the paper and searched for profound studies concerning the EIP of the dengue virus. She wrote the introduction with biological‐ecological background of the study and the discussion. Dominik Fischer developed the code for the analysis in GIS and arranged the figures 1‐4. He wrote the methods, results and the conclusion. Stefanie
Synopsis of the Thesis
Fleischmann practiced the final analysis in GIS and wrote a first draft (in German) as her Bachelor‐thesis. Torsten Bittner prepared scripts written in Python and R in order to stand‐
ardize the procedure in GIS. He arranged figure 5. Carl Beierkuhnlein was the supervisor of Bachelor‐thesis of Stefanie Fleischmann, gave critical comments and edited the Article.
Article 5:
Tjaden N.B., Thomas S.M., Fischer D., Beierkuhnlein C. (2013): Extrinsic incubation period of dengue: Knowledge, backlog and applications of temperature‐dependence. PLOS Ne‐
glected Tropical Diseases 7(6): e2207. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002207
Stephanie Thomas had the initial idea to review systematically laboratory studies concerning the EIP of dengue virus in order to provide reliable data for dengue risk model‐
ling. She compiled the results of an initial literature search. Nils Tjaden performed of the statistical analysis. He wrote the first draft of the Article and prepared the figures. Stephanie Thomas helped to draft the Article and gave critically comments. Dominik Fischer and Carl Beierkuhnlein did the final editing.
Article 6:
Fischer D., Thomas S.M., Suk J.E., Sudre B., Hess A., Tjaden B., Beierkuhnlein C., Semenza J.C. (2013): Climate change effects on Chikungunya transmission in Europe: Geospatial analysis of vector´s climatic suitability and virus´ temperature requirements. International Journal of Health Geographics 12:51. doi:10.1186/1476‐072X‐12‐51
Jonathan Suk, Jan Semenza and Bertrand Sudre initiated the project “Climate model‐
ling for Chikungunya” (OJ/08/02/2012‐PROC/2012/012). Stephanie Thomas, Dominik Fischer and Carl Beierkuhnlein developed the idea for the specific analysis. Dominik Fischer, Stephanie Thomas, Andreas Heß and Nils Tjaden practised the analysis. Carl Beierkuhnlein, Jonathan Suk, Jan Semenza and Bertrand Sudre contributed to the model design. Dominik Fischer, Stephanie Thomas and Andreas Heß prepared figures and tables. All authors con‐
Synopsis of the Thesis
tributed to the Article, commented on drafts critically. Stephanie Thomas and Dominik Fischer edited the final version of this paper.
Article 7:
Thomas S.M., Beierkuhnlein C. (2013): Predicting ectotherm disease vector spread ‐ Benefits from multi‐disciplinary approaches and directions forward. Naturwissenschaften 100(5):395‐405. doi 10.1007/s00114‐013‐1039‐0.
Carl Beierkuhnlein had the idea to compare the citation behaviour of different disci‐
plines working in the field of vector‐borne diseases. According to the broad spectrum of in‐
volved disciplines, tendencies to ignore findings in other fields must be taken serious.
Stephanie Thomas added the detailed methodological dimension, analysed the literature, and compared the methodological tasks of the disciplines in an interdisciplinary context. She wrote the Article and prepared the figures. Carl Beierkuhnlein gave critically comments on the Article and did the final editing.
Critical reflection and outlook