Journal article
After the epidemic: Ongoing declines, stabilizations and recoveries in amphibians afflicted by chytridiomycosis
BC Scheele, LF Skerratt, LF Grogan, DA Hunter, N Clemann, M McFadden, D Newell, CJ Hoskin, GR Gillespie, GW Heard, L Brannelly, AA Roberts, L Berger
Biological Conservation | ELSEVIER SCI LTD | Published : 2017
Abstract
The impacts of pathogen emergence in naïve hosts can be catastrophic, and pathogen spread now ranks as a major threat to biodiversity. However, pathogen impacts can persist for decades after epidemics and produce variable host outcomes. Chytridiomycosis in amphibians (caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, Bd) is an exemplar, with impacts ranging from rapid population crashes and extinctions, to population declines and subsequent recoveries. Here, we investigate long-term impacts associated with chytridiomycosis in Australia. We conducted a continent-wide assessment of the disease, reviewing data collected since the arrival of Bd in about 1978, to assess and characteri..
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Awarded by NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
Funding Acknowledgements
This paper is dedicated to Rick Speare and Keith McDonald whose efforts to understand the cause of amphibian declines in Queensland, Australia led to the discovery of chytridiomycosis. We acknowledge the enormous survey and monitoring efforts by Australian herpetologists over the past four decades. This study was funded by Australian Research Council grants (FT100100375, LP110200240 and DP120100811), a Queensland Accelerate Fellowship (14-218), NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, and the Taronga Conservation Science Initiative.