Tracking the spread of the eastern dwarf tree frog (Litoria fallax) in Australia using citizen science

An increasing number of species are establishing populations outside of their native ranges, often with negative ecological and economic impacts. The detection and surveillance of invasive species presents a huge logistical challenge, given the large spatial regions in which new populations can appear. However, data collected through citizen science projects are increasingly recognised as a valuable source for detection and monitoring of invasive species. We use data from a national citizen science project, FrogID, to quantify the spread of the eastern dwarf tree frog (Litoria fallax) outside its historical native range in Australia. Of 48 012 records of L. fallax in the FrogID database, 485 were located far outside the historical native range of the species. L. fallax has established geographically large populations hundreds of kilometres away from its native range, and these appear to be spreading in extent over time. These populations have resulted in novel species co-occurrences, with L. fallax now co-occurring with at least two frog species not present in their native range. Although the impacts of the invasive populations of L. fallax remain unknown, our work highlights the value in leveraging citizen science projects to detect and monitor native species that can become invasive far outside their historical range

Pengembangan Buku Ajar Mata Kuliah Bahasa Indonesia Untuk Mahasiswa STMIK Palangka Raya

Penelitian ini bertujuan mendeskripsikan proses perkuliahan Bahasa Indonesia di STMIK Palangka Raya, mengembangkan buku ajar mata kuliah Bahasa Indonesia yang sesuai dengan capaian kompetensi lulusan STMIK Palangka Raya, dan mengevaluasi validitas, efektivitas, serta kepraktisan buku ajar tersebut. Metode yang digunakan adalah Research and Development dengan menganalisis kebutuhan kemudian mengembangkan produk dan diuji validitas, efektivitas, dan kepraktisanya hingga diperoleh produk final. Produk yang dikembangkan adalah buku ajar mata kuliah Bahasa Indonesia untuk mahasiswa STMIK Palangka Raya. Hasil analisis menunjukkan buku ajar validitas sebesar 93%, efektif kerena sebesar 92,67% mahasiswa tuntas KKM, dan praktis karena mahasiswa sebesar 87,33% merespon keterterapan produk dengan baik, serta 89,60% praktisi merespon dengan baik saat diterapkan. Buku ajar ini memiliki keterterapan yang tinggi karena memiliki validitas yang tinggi pula. Buku ajar yang dikembangkan juga memiliki efektivitas yang baik, karena memiliki validitas yang tinggi dan kepraktisan yang tinggi pula. Dengan kepraktisan buku ajar yang tinggi, maka belajar materi Bahasa Indonesia akan lebih mudah.Disarankan agar dosen dapat menerapkan buku ajar Bahasa Indonesia untuk mahasiswa STMIK Palangka Raya guna membekali mahasiswa untuk cakap menerapkan kaidah-kaidah Bahasa Indonsia yang baik dan benar, dalam bidang ilmu pengetahuan dan teknologi maupun dalam kehidupan sehari-hari

Apparent absence of the amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) in frogs in Malaita Province, Solomon Islands

A major driver of global biodiversity loss is disease. One of the most devastating wildlife diseases known is chytridiomycosis, which is caused by the amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, and is implicated in population declines in over 500 frog species. Thought to originate in Asia, B. dendrobatidis now has a global distribution, likely due to human movement and trade. The pathogen has yet to be detected in Melanesia, but there have been few surveys for B. dendrobatidis in the region, and none in the Solomon Islands archipelago, a biogeographic region with a unique and culturally important frog fauna. We swabbed 200 frogs of eight species in three genera in lowland and highland sites in East Kwaio on the island of Malaita in the Solomon Islands. All frogs tested negative for the pathogen but it is possible that the pathogen is present despite non-detection, so further surveys for the pathogen are needed throughout the country. Despite this, it is safest to take a precautionary approach and assume that B. dendrobatidis has not yet been introduced to the Solomon Islands, and that naïve native amphibian populations may be at risk of decline if the pathogen is introduced. Protocols are needed to prevent the accidental import of infected frogs via tourism or in logging or mining equipment. Monitoring of frog populations near areas of high risk such as ports is also recommended. The frogs of the Solomon Islands archipelago are biologically unique and culturally significant, and protecting them from the potentially devastating impacts of B. dendrobatidis is vital

Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Metabolite-Dependent Quiescence and Persistence May Explain Antibiotic Tolerance during Urinary Tract Infection

In the present study, it is shown that although Escherichia coli CFT073, a human uropathogenic (UPEC) strain, grows in liquid glucose M9 minimal medium, it fails to grow on glucose M9 minimal medium agar plates seeded with ≤106 CFU. The cells on glucose plates appear to be in a “quiescent” state that can be prevented by various combinations of lysine, methionine, and tyrosine. Moreover, the quiescent state is characteristic of ~80% of E. coli phylogenetic group B2 multilocus sequence type 73 strains, as well as 22.5% of randomly selected UPEC strains isolated from community-acquired urinary tract infections in Denmark. In addition, E. coli CFT073 quiescence is not limited to glucose but occurs on agar plates containing a number of other sugars and acetate as sole carbon sources. It is also shown that a number of E. coliCFT073 mini-Tn5 metabolic mutants (gnd, gdhA, pykF, sdhA, and zwf) are nonquiescent on glucose M9 minimal agar plates and that quiescence requires a complete oxidative tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. In addition, evidence is presented that, although E. coli CFT073 quiescence and persistence in the presence of ampicillin are alike in that both require a complete oxidative TCA cycle and each can be prevented by amino acids, E. coli CFT073 quiescence occurs in the presence or absence of a functional rpoS gene, whereas maximal persistence requires a nonfunctional rpoS. Our results suggest that interventions targeting specific central metabolic pathways may mitigate UPEC infections by interfering with quiescence and persistence

Uropathogenic <i>Escherichia coli</i> metabolite-dependent quiescence and persistence may explain antibiotic tolerance during urinary tract infection

ABSTRACT In the present study, it is shown that although Escherichia coli CFT073, a human uropathogenic (UPEC) strain, grows in liquid glucose M9 minimal medium, it fails to grow on glucose M9 minimal medium agar plates seeded with ≤106 CFU. The cells on glucose plates appear to be in a “quiescent” state that can be prevented by various combinations of lysine, methionine, and tyrosine. Moreover, the quiescent state is characteristic of ~80% of E. coli phylogenetic group B2 multilocus sequence type 73 strains, as well as 22.5% of randomly selected UPEC strains isolated from community-acquired urinary tract infections in Denmark. In addition, E. coli CFT073 quiescence is not limited to glucose but occurs on agar plates containing a number of other sugars and acetate as sole carbon sources. It is also shown that a number of E. coli CFT073 mini-Tn5 metabolic mutants (gnd, gdhA, pykF, sdhA, and zwf) are nonquiescent on glucose M9 minimal agar plates and that quiescence requires a complete oxidative tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. In addition, evidence is presented that, although E. coli CFT073 quiescence and persistence in the presence of ampicillin are alike in that both require a complete oxidative TCA cycle and each can be prevented by amino acids, E. coli CFT073 quiescence occurs in the presence or absence of a functional rpoS gene, whereas maximal persistence requires a nonfunctional rpoS. Our results suggest that interventions targeting specific central metabolic pathways may mitigate UPEC infections by interfering with quiescence and persistence. IMPORTANCE Recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) affect 10 to 40% of women. In up to 77% of those cases, the recurrent infections are caused by the same uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) strain that caused the initial infection. Upon infection of urothelial transitional cells in the bladder, UPEC appear to enter a nongrowing quiescent intracellular state that is thought to serve as a reservoir responsible for recurrent UTIs. Here, we report that many UPEC strains enter a quiescent state when ≤106 CFU are seeded on glucose M9 minimal medium agar plates and show that mutations in several genes involved in central carbon metabolism prevent quiescence, as well as persistence, possibly identifying metabolic pathways involved in UPEC quiescence and persistence in vivo

Amphibians in Zootaxa: 20 years documenting the global diversity of frogs, salamanders, and caecilians

Zootaxa is a mega-journal that since its inception, 20 years ago, has contributed to the documentation of the planet?s biodiversity. Its role concerning terrestrial vertebrates has been crucial especially for amphibians, which are the most threatened class of vertebrates. As current editors of the Amphibia section, we reviewed the state of knowledge of taxonomic publications on amphibians over the last two decades (from 2001 to 2020). Our review reveals that 2,533 frogs, 259 salamanders, and 55 caecilians have been named in these 20 years, mainly in the tropical regions of South America, Asia, and Africa. More than half (57%) of these species descriptions were published in only 10 journals. At least 827 species of the new amphibians (29% of the total) were described in Zootaxa. This mega-journal has served also as a place of publication for monographs and systematic reviews, in addition to short articles documenting the vocalizations of anurans and the morphology of embryos and larvae. Its efficient evaluation process, the freedom of manuscript length, including full-color figures, and free of cost for the authors, has made Zootaxa a favorite for amphibian researchers. In an era of accelerating rates of biodiversity loss, documenting, describing, naming, and proposing evolutionary scenarios for species is, more than ever, an urgent task.Fil: Rivera Correa, Mauricio. Universidad de Antioquia; ColombiaFil: Baldo, Juan Diego. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas; ArgentinaFil: Vera Candioti, María Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán. Unidad Ejecutora Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Goyannes Dill Orrico, Victor. Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz; BrasilFil: Blackburn, David C.. University Of Florida. Florida Museum Of History; Estados UnidosFil: Castroviejo Fisher, Santiago. Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul; BrasilFil: Chan, Kin Onn. National University of Singapore; SingapurFil: Gambale, Priscilla. Universidade Federal de Goiás; BrasilFil: Gower, David J.. Natural History Museum; Reino UnidoFil: Quah, Evan S. H.. National University of Singapore; SingapurFil: Rowley, Jodi J. L.. University of New South Wales; AustraliaFil: Twomey, Evan. Goethe Universitat Frankfurt; AlemaniaFil: Vences, Miguel. Technische Universitat Carolo Wilhelmina Zu Braunschweig.; Alemani

Is Chytridiomycosis an Emerging Infectious Disease in Asia?

The disease chytridiomycosis, caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has caused dramatic amphibian population declines and extinctions in Australia, Central and North America, and Europe. Bd is associated with >200 species extinctions of amphibians, but not all species that become infected are susceptible to the disease. Specifically, Bd has rapidly emerged in some areas of the world, such as in Australia, USA, and throughout Central and South America, causing population and species collapse. The mechanism behind the rapid global emergence of the disease is poorly understood, in part due to an incomplete picture of the global distribution of Bd. At present, there is a considerable amount of geographic bias in survey effort for Bd, with Asia being the most neglected continent. To date, Bd surveys have been published for few Asian countries, and infected amphibians have been reported only from Indonesia, South Korea, China and Japan. Thus far, there have been no substantiated reports of enigmatic or suspected disease-caused population declines of the kind that has been attributed to Bd in other areas. In order to gain a more detailed picture of the distribution of Bd in Asia, we undertook a widespread, opportunistic survey of over 3,000 amphibians for Bd throughout Asia and adjoining Papua New Guinea. Survey sites spanned 15 countries, approximately 36° latitude, 111° longitude, and over 2000 m in elevation. Bd prevalence was very low throughout our survey area (2.35% overall) and infected animals were not clumped as would be expected in epizootic events. This suggests that Bd is either newly emerging in Asia, endemic at low prevalence, or that some other ecological factor is preventing Bd from fully invading Asian amphibians. The current observed pattern in Asia differs from that in many other parts of the world

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Why does Chytridiomycosis drive some frog populations to extinction and not others?: the effects of interspecific variation in host behaviour

Infectious diseases currently pose a great threat to global biodiversity. One of the most alarming wildlife disease to date is chytridiomycosis, a fatal disease of amphibians caused by the pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Chytridiomycosis has been implicated in mass mortalities, population declines, and local and global extinctions of many species of amphibians around the world. However, while some species have been severely affected by the disease, other, sympatric species remain unaffected. One reason why some species decline from chytridiomycosis and others do not may be interspecific differences in behaviour, which may affect the probabilities of acquiring and succumbing to infections. Host behaviour can either facilitate or hinder pathogen transmission, and transmission rates in the field are likely to vary among species according the frequency of factors such as physical contact between frogs, contact with infected water, and contact with environmental substrates that may serve as reservoirs. Similarly, the thermal and hydric environments experienced by frogs can strongly affect their susceptibility to chytridiomycosis, so some interspecific differences in the effects of the disease may also be caused by differences in microenvironment use among species. I examined the potential effects of behaviour on the susceptibility of different host species to declines caused by chytridiomycosis by tracking three species of stream-breeding frogs in northern Queensland, Australia. The species historically co-occurred at many sites in the Wet Tropics, but high elevation (> 400 m) populations of two species declined to differing degrees in association with outbreaks of chytridiomycosis in recent decades, while low elevation populations remained apparently unaffected. The waterfall frog Litoria nannotis, declined to local extinction at all known high elevation sites. All studied populations of the green-eyed tree frog Litoria genimaculata at high elevation sites declined to low numbers and then recovered. The third species, the stoney creek frog Litoria lesueuri, is not known to have experienced population declines even at high elevations. I used radio telemetry and harmonic direction finding to track frogs at five sites. Surveys lasted 16 days and were conducted in both the cool/dry season and the warm/wet season. The location of each frog was determined once during the day and once at night over the duration of the survey period. At each location, I recorded contact with other frogs, stream water, and other environmental substrates, its three-dimensional position, movement, habitat type, and body temperature. Retreat sites of L. lesueuri and L. nannotis were also sampled for B. dendrobatidis. Harmonic direction finding obtained fewer fixes on frogs but measures of movement and habitat use did not differ significantly between techniques. In total, 117 frogs were tracked: 28 L. nannotis, 27 L. genimaculata and 62 L. lesueuri. Frequency of contact with other frogs and with water was highest in L. nannotis, intermediate in L. genimaculata, and lowest in L. lesueuri. Environmental substrate use differed among species, and B. dendrobatidis was not detected at retreat sites. Movement and habitat use also differed significantly among species. Litoria lesueuri moved more frequently and greater distances and was often located away from streams, moving between intact rainforest and highly disturbed environments. Litoria genimaculata moved less frequently and shorter distances, and was more restricted to stream environments, occasionally moved large distances along and between streams, but was never located outside of intact rainforest. Litoria nannotis remained in streams during the day, did not move large distances along or move between streams, and was always located within intact rainforest. In addition to tracking data, I designed, tested, and deployed novel physical models to record the thermal conditions experienced by frogs, regardless of cutaneous resistance to water-loss. These models were placed in species-specific diurnal retreat sites; providing profiles integrated over time of the thermal and hydric regimes of the microenvironments experienced by each species. Microenvironmental conditions experienced by frogs differed markedly among species and seasons. Retreat sites of the most susceptible species, L. nannotis, were almost always within the thermal optimum and never above the thermal tolerance of B. dendrobatidis, while retreat sites of the least susceptible species, L. lesueuri, were commonly above the thermal optimum and thermal tolerance of B. dendrobatidis. Hydric conditions were most suitable for B. dendrobatidis growth at L. nannotis retreat sites. Species-specific differences in behaviour are therefore likely to have large implications for the susceptibility of species to decline due to chytridiomycosis. This thesis provides the first empirical confirmation that species-specific differences in behaviour are likely to affect the susceptibility in nature of amphibians to chytridiomycosis. The behaviour of the species most susceptible to B. dendrobatidis related declines was the most favourable for the transmission, growth and development of B. dendrobatidis, while the behaviour of the species least susceptible to B. dendrobatidis related declines had the least favourable for its transmission, growth and development. Species-specific differences in the behaviour of frogs in the field may also explain why infected individuals of some species experience rapid mortality in the laboratory, yet are able to carry infections for extended periods in the field. Temporal and spatial variation in microenvironments available to and used by frogs may also explain variation in infection prevalence and host mortality. Information on amphibian behaviour and microenvironmental use may be useful in evaluating the susceptibility to declines caused by chytridiomycosis in species that presently occur in areas without B. dendrobatidis