NEON ticks sampled using drag cloths and tick pathogen status

Study Extent

This study includes data from 46 terrestrial field sites located across the United States including Alaska and Puerto Rico. Sampling occurs during the growing season every 3 weeks at sites with established tick populations (defined as capturing > 5 ticks in the previous field season), and every 6 weeks at sites without established tick populations. A subset of nymphal ticks are sent for pathogen testing once per year.

Sampling

Ticks are collected along the border of a 40m x 40m plot using drag and/or flag sampling techniques. There are 6 plots sampled at each NEON site. Samples are sent to an external laboratory where they are enumerated and identified by a professional taxonomist. A bout of sampling is only performed if the high temperature in the 2 days prior to sampling is >0C. Sampling is only performed when the ground is dry and during periods of low wind (below 10-20 mph). The hottest part of the day is also avoided during the summer months.

Quality Control

Many quality control measures are implemented at the point of data entry within a mobile data entry application or web user interface (UI). For example, data formats are constrained and data values controlled through the provision of dropdown options, which reduces the number of processing steps necessary to prepare the raw data for publication. An additional set of constraints are implemented during the process of ingest into the NEON database. Data collected prior to 2017 were processed using a paper‐based workflow that did not implement the full suite of quality control features associated with the interactive digital workflow.

Method steps

1. Data from the 2022 data release were downloaded from the National Ecological Observatory Network data portal. Data included information on tick collection, identification and pathogen testing. The identification data were expanded to allow each row to represent a single tick to allow for documentation of associatedOccurrences.

This dataset covers hard ticks collected using the drag/flag method including: Ixodes pacificus, Amblyomma americanum, Amblyomma maculatum, Dermacentor andersoni, Dermacentor occidentalis, Dermacentor variabilis, Haemaphysalis leporispalustris, Haemaphysalis longicornis, Ixodes affinis, Ixodes angustus, Ixodes dentatus, Ixodes marxi, Ixodes muris, and Ixodes scapularis. This dataset also covers testing results for several tick-borne pathogens including: Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia microti, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Borrelia lonestari, Borrelia mayonii, Borrelia myamotoi, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, Ehrlichia ewingii, Ehrlichia muris-like, Francisella tularensis, and Rickettsia rickettsii.

1. Ixodidae
   common name: hard ticks rank: family
2. Ixodes sp.
   rank: genus
3. Dermacentor sp.
   rank: genus
4. Haemaphysalis sp.
   rank: genus
5. Amblyomma sp.
   rank: genus
6. Borrelia sp.
   rank: genus
7. Anaplasma phagocytophilum
   rank: species
8. Ehrlichia sp.
   rank: genus
9. Babesia microti
   rank: species
10. Francisella tularensis
    rank: species
11. Rickettsia rickettsii
    rank: species

Data are collected at 46 terrestrial NEON sites across the United States including Alaska and Puerto Rico, but excluding Hawaii.