Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory

01 Jun, 10 AM - 15 Sep, 03 AM

During summer 2012, the largest remaining mountain yellow-legged frog population will suffer a mass-mortality event caused by the recent arrival in the area of the amphibian chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). In mountain yellow-legged frog populations the arrival of Bd in a na?ve population typically results in frog population extirpation, and the goal of the proposed study is to change the outcome to long-term persistence. This disease intervention will take the form of a field experiment in which the effectiveness of antifungal drug and bacterial augmentation treatments are quantified at the scale of an entire frog population. This large-scale experiment will provide a unique opportunity to also test several specific hypotheses regarding the mechanisms underlying treatment effectiveness, including the role of the adaptive immune system, effect of the microbiome present on the skin of frogs, and rapid evolution in frogs during Bd epizootics. To initiate the experiment, frogs will be treated with Itraconazole, the symbiotic skin bacterium Janthinobacterium lividum, or both. Untreated control frogs will also be included. Following treatment, frogs will be released into the study lake and the Bd load and frog survival quantified during the remainder of the summer and fall using frog skin swabs and frog capture-recapture techniques. The effect of the frog microbiome on frog susceptibility to Bd will be investigated by quantifying relationships between microbiome composition (determined by pyrosequencing) and frog Bd load over the course of the experiment. The dynamics of natural selection in the frogs will be described using genomic tools applied to frog tissue samples collected from frogs in all treatments before and after the frog mass-mortality event.

Visit #28699 @Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory

Approved

Under Project # 9518 | Research

Factors allowing amphibian persistence following disease outbreaks

research_scientist - University of California, Santa Barbara

Reservation Members(s)

Roland Knapp Jun 1 - Sep 15, 2012 (107 days)

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