Synergies between disease and urbanization drive the decline of threatened amphibian metapopulations

Abstract

As global change intensifies, species are increasingly affected by multiple co-occurring threats. Determining how co-occurring threats interact is crucial for understanding decline trajectories and guiding effective management responses. We used dynamic occupancy models fitted to two decades of monitoring data for the Growling Grass Frog (Litoria raniformis) in southeastern Australia to examine the combined effects of two prominent global threats to amphibians: urbanization and the disease chytridiomycosis, caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Site occupancy declined by 38% during the study period. Occupancy modeling demonstrated that the probability of persiste..