Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory

11 Jun, 05 AM - 15 Sep, 10 AM

The proposed research would be conducted off of the SNARL facility (reseach conducted in Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite National Parks). I will need housing for two crew members, Tom Smith and Julia Rosen (both employed in previous years). The objective of the research project is provided below. The newly identified fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, has recently been implicated in the declines of amphibians worldwide. We aim to determine the origin of this disease and understand how anthropogenic environmental changes influence the prevalence and spread of Batrachochytrium in the mountain yellow-legged frog, Rana muscosa. Fish introduced into the Sierra Nevada of California have severely reduced and fragmented populations of R. muscosa, confining the frogs to a small fraction of their previous habitat, and restricting the movement of individual frogs between local populations. Recent management decisions have initiated fish removals, which result in frog movement and rapid recolonization of newly fishless lakes. All changes in frog movement are likely to have major consequences for the persistence of the fungal disease through changes in transmission and the number of susceptible hosts. Additional anthropogenic influences come from deposition of agricultural contaminants, which are potentially affecting frog reproduction, survival, and resistance to pathogens, thereby changing the number of susceptible hosts. We will develop predictive models that incorporate R. muscosa movement, contaminants, and disease to provide critical insights into the dynamics of an infectious disease whose host population is subject to increasingly common anthropogenic influences. We have assembled a team with expertise in pathogenic fungi, epidemiology, amphibian ecology, population genetics, and statistical and mechanistic modeling. Our results are certain to improve our understanding of amphibian population declines in protected but fragmented habitats, but they also can be generalized to studies of disease dynamics in other systems, and should provide clues to the prevention and treatment of microbial pathogens in humans.

Visit #11991 @Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory

Approved

Under Project # 6246 | Research

Amphibian Disease Dynamics in a Fragmented Landscape - 2006

research_scientist - University of California, Santa Barbara

Reservation Members(s)

Group of 2 Research Assistant (non-student/faculty/postdoc) Jun 11 - Sep 15, 2007 (97 days)

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Q1 2 Jun 11 - Sep 15, 2007