The ecology of disease and anthropogenic stressors in amphibians

了解人类活动如何影响自然种群和群落是环境生物学中的一个重要问题。人类影响，如释放非生物应激源，通常与疾病等自然因素共同发生，但非生物应激和野生动物疾病通常被视为相互孤立的。该项目将共同研究非生物胁迫和野生动物疾病的影响。两栖动物是研究非生物应激与疾病相互作用的理想系统；它们正在经历全球人口下降，非生物压力源和疾病的存在被认为是原因。然而，这两个因素在很大程度上被孤立对待。这个项目将检验一个假设，即全球常见的非生物压力源的低浓度使两栖动物更容易受到两种疾病的影响，这两种疾病在世界各地造成了巨大的死亡率。该项目的目的是研究疾病和非生物应激源对几种两栖动物的单独和联合影响。这项工作具有变革性，因为它汇集了三个典型的独立研究领域（生理生态学、疾病生态学和群落生态学），并将它们联合起来解决一个重大的生物学问题。拟议的研究对于理解非生物应激和疾病在野生动物种群中的作用以及对一般生物多样性的关注具有明确的意义。因此，本研究的发现对保护和通知全球非生物应激源的调节具有巨大的潜在意义。更广泛的影响是多方面的。该项目将在两所院校培训几名研究生和本科生，其中包括代表性不足的群体。对社会的好处包括对传染病传播的新见解，重点是目前与全球两栖动物数量下降有关的病原体。因此，改善两栖动物保护的潜在影响是巨大的。研究结果将在期刊、会议、研讨会、网页和大众媒体上传播。研究结果还将被开发成教师讲习班和教学模块，供初中和高中教师使用。总的来说，这项工作有望产生重大的科学影响以及对社会的许多更广泛的影响。

Understanding how human activities affect natural populations and communities is an important issue in environmental biology. Human impacts such as the release of abiotic stressors commonly co-occur with natural factors such as diseases, yet abiotic stress and wildlife diseases are commonly considered in isolation of each other. This project will investigate the effects of abiotic stress and wildlife diseases in concert. Amphibians offer an ideal system for studying the interaction of abiotic stress and diseases; they are experiencing global population declines and the presence of abiotic stressors and diseases have been implicated as causes. However, these two factors have largely been treated in isolation. This project will test the hypothesis that low concentrations of globally common abiotic stressors make amphibians more susceptible to two disease organisms that are causing tremendous mortality around the world. The objective of this project is to examine the separate and combined impacts of diseases and abiotic stressors on several species of amphibians. This work is transformative because it brings together three typically separate fields of research (physiological ecology, disease ecology, and community ecology) and unites them to tackle a major biological question. The proposed research has clear implications for understanding the role of abiotic stress and diseases in wildlife populations and for concerns about biodiversity in general. As a result, findings from this research have enormous potential implications for conservation and informing the regulation of abiotic stressors worldwide.The broader impacts are multi-dimensional. The project will train several graduate and undergraduate students at two institutions, including under-represented groups. The benefits to society include new insights into the spread of infectious disease, with a focus on pathogens that are currently associated with worldwide amphibian declines. Hence, the potential impacts for improved amphibian conservation are enormous. The results will be disseminated in journals, conferences, seminars, web pages, and the popular press. The results also will be developed into Teacher Workshops and teaching modules for middle and high school teachers. Collectively, this work promises to have a substantial scientific impact as well as numerous broader impacts on society.