. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Sep 19.

Published in final edited form as: J Med Entomol. 2014 Mar;51(2):297–313. doi: 10.1603/me11168

Table 1.

Examples of different types of scales, points along those axes, and some key processes that occur at those points for vector-borne pathogen systems

Level	Scale axis
Level	Spatial	Temporal	Biological organization
Micro	Local	Days–months	Within individual
	Adult microhabitat choice	Epidemics	Immunology
			Gene expression
			Vector competence
Intermediate	Regional	Multi-year	Populations
	Niche modeling	Seasonality, endemic cycles	Vectorial capacity
	Watershed dynamics		Invasion biology
			Transmission dynamics
Macro	Global	Decadal and longer	Community/Ecosystem
	Comparative epidemiology	Effects of climate change	Food webs
			Eco-epidemiology

The scales are continuous and we denote specific points along them for convenience in discussion; many processes occur at multiple levels. Interactions between the scale axes and between the points along the scales are common and an integral part of understanding how issues of scale impact vector-borne disease and study design and interpretation.