Moving Beyond Too Little, Too Late: Managing Emerging Infectious Diseases in Wild Populations Requires International Policy and Partnerships

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Climate Change and American Bullfrog Invasion: What Could We Expect in South America?

BACKGROUND: Biological invasion and climate change pose challenges to biodiversity conservation in the 21(st) century. Invasive species modify ecosystem structure and functioning and climatic changes are likely to produce invasive species' range shifts pushing some populations into protected areas. The American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) is one of the hundred worst invasive species in the world. Native from the southeast of USA, it has colonized more than 75% of South America where it has been reported as a highly effective predator, competitor and vector of amphibian diseases. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We modeled the potential distribution of the bullfrog in its native range based on different climate models and green-house gases emission scenarios, and projected the results onto South America for the years of 2050 and 2080. We also overlaid projected models onto the South American network of protected areas. Our results indicate a slight decrease in potential suitable area for bullfrog invasion, although protected areas will become more climatically suitable. Therefore, invasion of these sites is forecasted. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: We provide new evidence supporting the vulnerability of the Atlantic Forest Biodiversity Hotspot to bullfrog invasion and call attention to optimal future climatic conditions of the Andean-Patagonian forest, eastern Paraguay, and northwestern Bolivia, where invasive populations have not been found yet. We recommend several management and policy strategies to control bullfrog invasion and argue that these would be possible if based on appropriate articulation among government agencies, NGOs, research institutions and civil society

Organisms in experimental research

Rachel A. Ankeny and Sabina Leonell

Chytridiomycosis

The amphibian fungal disease chytridiomycosis is considered one of the greatest threats to biodiversity. This lethal skin disease is caused by chytridiomycete fungi belonging to the genus Batrachochytrium. Although sudden amphibian population declines had occurred since the 1970s in the Americas and Australia, mass mortalities were not observed until the 1990s. The fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) was identified as the cause of these declines. It is estimated that Bd has caused the rapid decline or extinction of at least 200 amphibian species, which is probably an underestimation due to the cryptic behaviour of many amphibians such as many salamanders and also the lack of monitoring. A second chytrid species, B. salamandrivorans (Bsal), has recently emerged and caused mass mortality in salamanders in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, affecting most salamander and newt taxa in the amphibian community and is considered a major threat to the western Palearctic amphibian biodiversity. In this chapter we review the epidemiology, host pathogen interactions and mitigation strategies of both chytrid pathogens