I'll tentatively add that this topic came up at a dinner with Pardis Sabetti https://www.sabetilab.org and George Church http://arep.med.harvard.edu/gmc/. At the time, neither of them thought mosquitos were an essential part of any animal's food chain. Except that I'm not 100% sure we were talking about mosquitoes at the time – maybe we were talking about some species of bats. :-(
[By the way, Grayson Brown's quote “the ecological damage […] would make eradication not worth it unless there was a very serious public health emergency” may sound clueless or heartless. Charitably, maybe he was referring to eradication in developed nations only, and maybe the full interview – which I haven't listened to – makes this clear.]
There's less consensus among scientists than there is on Quora. A few interviews and quotes:
* “Ecology: A world without mosquitoes”, Janet Fang, Nature, 21 July 2010. https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html
* “Zika Raises the Question: Are Mosquitoes Necessary?”, Jason Bittel, National Geographic, February 7, 2016. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160207-mosquitoe...
* “What If Every Mosquito On Earth Went Extinct Tomorrow?”, Ria Misra, October 15, 2017. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160207-mosquitoe...
I'll tentatively add that this topic came up at a dinner with Pardis Sabetti https://www.sabetilab.org and George Church http://arep.med.harvard.edu/gmc/. At the time, neither of them thought mosquitos were an essential part of any animal's food chain. Except that I'm not 100% sure we were talking about mosquitoes at the time – maybe we were talking about some species of bats. :-(
[By the way, Grayson Brown's quote “the ecological damage […] would make eradication not worth it unless there was a very serious public health emergency” may sound clueless or heartless. Charitably, maybe he was referring to eradication in developed nations only, and maybe the full interview – which I haven't listened to – makes this clear.]