Evolutionary ecologist and ornithologist as well as a science writer and journalist. I'm active on many social medias (linked here) and I curate my writing on Medium and Substack.
Amphibian species around the world are threatened with extinction by the deadly fungal disease, chytridiomycosis. A simple, low-cost solution to provide warm conditions enabling frogs to clear the infection and remain disease free.Black bricks could be the long-sought relief to the global pandemic of chytridiomycosis that is killing hundreds of amphibian populations. Chytridiomycosis is an infectious fungal disease in amphibians caused by the chytrid fungi,.
Chytridiomycosis is the major contributor to the dramatic amphibian declines in many parts of the world and can kill all individuals within a population. The chytrids are linked with the decline and extinction of amphibians in Australia, the Caribbean and North, Central and South America. At this time, 90 amphibian species are either presumed to be extinct or are known to have gone extinct in the wild due to chytrid infections, whilst an additional 491 species populations are in sharp decline.
But like all fungi, chytrid do have one weakness: they are cold-adapted organisms that thrive at cooler temperatures Half of these mesocosyms were shaded and half were exposed to full sun. “Frogs that had cleared their infection using heat were subsequently resistant to disease regardless of their body temperature,” Dr Waddle reported. “This allowed me to think of the shelters as these little factories where sick frogs would go, get better, and come out not only healthy but better able to fight chytrid.”
“Right now, they just get hammered every winter,” Dr Waddle said, describing what he has seen in Sydney. “There’s just dead and dying frogs everywhere. Populations are just struggling to get a couple individuals through the winter to breed.”
Ecological Epidemiology Mycology Biodiversity Amphibians Chytridiomycosis Extinction Grrlscientist Chytrid Fungus Frog Sauna
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