Meeting Abstract
128.6 Monday, Jan. 7 Focusing on survivors: Understanding how some amphibian populations persist beyond chytridiomycosis outbreaks VOYLES, J*; POORTEN, T; TOOTHMAN, M; KNAPP, R; BRIGGS, C; VREDENBERG, V; ROSENBLUM, EB; Univ. of California, Berkeley; Univ. of California, Berkeley; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; San Francisco State Univ; Univ. of California, Berkeley jamie.voyles@gmail.com
Mountain yellow-legged frogs (Rana muscosa ) are among the most imperiled of all amphibian species. Over the past few decades, these frogs have disappeared from >93% of their historic range. One of the most pressing threats to Mountain yellow-legged frogs is chytridiomycosis, a disease is implicated in the decline of amphibians around the world. Chytridiomycosis is caused by a fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), which can spread rapidly into naïve amphibian populations and cause high rates of mortality. In the Sierra Nevada mountains, a chytridiomycosis epidemic has been linked to mass mortality events and resulted in catastrophic losses of frog populations. Here we present results from exposure experiments that indicate Rana muscosa survive with Bd-infection and from field resurveys in populations that have survived initial chytridiomycosis outbreaks. The mechanisms by which some populations survive while other die out have not been fully resolved, but we propose that investigating evolutionary shifts in both host and pathogen responses to infection may reveal how some populations persist with a tolerance for the disease. Investigating the mechanisms of population persistence through epidemic outbreaks (i.e. focusing on survivors) is critical to amphibian conservation because many species are being bred in captivity with the idea of one day reintroducing them to the wild. Because Bd is now ubiquitous in many parts of the world, characterizing survival traits will facilitate population recovery and the repatriation of captive amphibians where devastating losses of amphibian biodiversity have occurred.
