Journal article
Hotspot shelters stimulate frog resistance to chytridiomycosis
AW Waddle, S Clulow, A Aquilina, EL Sauer, SW Kaiser, C Miller, JA Flegg, PT Campbell, H Gallagher, I Dimovski, Y Lambreghts, L Berger, LF Skerratt, R Shine
Nature | Published : 2024
Abstract
Many threats to biodiversity cannot be eliminated; for example, invasive pathogens may be ubiquitous. Chytridiomycosis is a fungal disease that has spread worldwide, driving at least 90 amphibian species to extinction, and severely affecting hundreds of others1–4. Once the disease spreads to a new environment, it is likely to become a permanent part of that ecosystem. To enable coexistence with chytridiomycosis in the field, we devised an intervention that exploits host defences and pathogen vulnerabilities. Here we show that sunlight-heated artificial refugia attract endangered frogs and enable body temperatures high enough to clear infections, and that having recovered in this way, frogs a..
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Awarded by ARC
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank M. Elphick, B. Ashton, R. Miller, C. Wilson, K. Pasfield and H. Malouf for their assistance with setting up mesocosms; M. Whiting for lending us laboratory space for disease testing; M. Elphick for assistance with data entry and management; V. Russell and S. Deering for their assistance with data collection; and M. Holmes for assistance with visuals. A.W.W. was supported by a Melbourne Research Scholarship, a Graduate Education Scholarship from the American Australian Association, and also supported by the Schmidt Science Fellows, in partnership with the Rhodes Trust; L.F.S. was supported by ARC FT190100462; S.C. was supported by a Macquarie University Research Fellowship; and J.A.F. was supported by ARC DP200100747 and ARC FT210100034. Research funding was provided by Macquarie University. Additional funding was provided by the Frog and Tadpole Study Group of New South Wales, a Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales Ethel Mary Read Student Grant and a Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment Student Grant.