Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Earth Sciences

Committee Chair

Esra Ozdenerol

Committee Member

Anzhelika Antipova Antipova

Committee Member

Bernie Daigle

Committee Member

Jr

Committee Member

Megan Linske

Committee Member

Maria Gomes-Solecki

Abstract

Features related to Lyme disease throughout the United States on different scales was analyzed over 17 years of reported Lyme disease cases obtained from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Results showed overall risk being in the eastern United States, more concentrated in the upper Midwest and Northeast which coincides with previous research. Models produced from this study using stratified random sampling were unsuccessful in predicting areas where people are at high risk of contracting the pathogens that cause this disease. When using equal samples among groups the models were able to correctly classify some high-risk areas, but it also limited models to national, Northeast, and Midcontinent regions only. Species presence indicating high risk produced mixed opinions as those noted in previous investigations. Human social-behaviors related to Lyme disease rates were aligned with what was expected. However, just using these components separately failed to produce accurate results. Combining these components together using three vulnerability components (exposure, adaptive capacity, and sensitivity) provided more accurate depictions of risk. The final risk map was used to prioritize areas for wildlife vaccine deployment to private and public areas. Future work could include ground-truthing of priority areas and wildlife vaccine deployment programs.

Comments

Data is provided by the student

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest.

Notes

Open Access

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