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New insights into how deadly amphibian disease spreads and kills

Scientists have unraveled the dynamics of a deadly disease that is wiping out amphibian populations across the globe.

New findings, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that infection intensity -- the severity of the disease among individuals -- determines whether frog populations will survive or succumb to an amphibian fungal disease called Chytridiomycosis.

The research identifies a dangerous tipping point in infection intensity, beyond which Chytrid causes mass mortalities and extinctions, and finds that continual re-infection causes the disease to reach this threshold.

EurekAlert! - www.eurekalert.org
10 May 2010
Photo credit: N Reeder

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Journal Articles Cited
Dynamics of an emerging disease drive large-scale amphibian population extinctions. PNAS. Published ahead of print 10 May 2010.

Enzootic and epizootic dynamics of the chytrid fungal pathogen of amphibians. PNAS. Published ahead of print 10 May 2010.

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Molecular Data and Images from Space Used to Study Imperiled Coastal Dolphins

Using DNA samples and images from Earth-orbiting satellites, conservationists from Columbia University, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the American Museum of Natural History, and Fundación AquaMarina, are gathering new insights about the franciscana -- a poorly known coastal dolphin species of eastern South America -- in an effort to understand populations and conserve them.

The study, one of the first to combine molecular data along with range-wide environmental information for a marine species, is helping researchers to understand how seemingly monotonous marine environments actually contain significant habitat differences that are shaping populations of this threatened species, which averages between 5-6 feet in length and around 80-90 pounds in weight.

According to findings published in the most recent edition of Molecular Ecology, genetic differences between dolphins from different sites correlate to measurable differences in water temperature, turbidity and chlorophyll levels, a tantalizing indication of how largely hidden oceanographic variables could drive population structure of marine animals.

Science Daily - www.sciencedaily.com
10 May 2010
Photo credit: Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

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Journal Article Cited

Isolation by environmental distance in mobile marine species: molecular ecology of franciscana dolphins at their southern range. Molecular Ecology. Published online 04 May 2010.