SGER: Investigating the Spread and Causes of Amphibian Declines in Tropical America

LIPS 9807583在1990年至1997年间，PI观察到中美洲山区两个偏远的受保护地点的河岸无尾两栖动物突然和原因不明的减少。这些下降的原因尚不清楚，但根据五年多的个人观察、人口统计数据和对死亡青蛙的尸检结果(由D.E.Green)，PI假设这两个下降可能归因于两种微生物病原体：一种真菌和一种病毒。PI表明，这两个地点受到致死哥斯达黎加蒙特韦尔德两栖动物的同一种病原体的影响，过去10年这三个地点两栖动物的连续消失证明了一种高度传染性的病原体正在穿过中美洲地峡。PI将提议组织一个多学科的快速反应和评估小组，试图在两栖动物死亡率这一明显的“前线”之前跳跃。该团队将调查两栖动物的健康状况和环境，以记录每一种动物在衰退期间的变化。可能的成员包括爬行动物学家、病理学家、毒物学家、内分泌学家、寄生虫学家和流行病学家。该团队将系统地调查这些地点，以确定两栖动物衰退的机制，方法是调查所有生命阶段，测量被认为导致或导致衰退的环境因素，并收集个人进行全面的医疗诊断评估。该小组将通过调查已经出现下降和预计将出现下降的特定高地地区来确定中美洲和南美洲下降的地理范围。

Lips 9807583 Between 1990-97 the PI has observed the sudden and unexplained decline of the riparian anurans at two remote, protected sites in montane Central America. Causes of these declines are unknown, but based on over five years of personal observations, demographic data, and results of autopsies on dead frogs (by D. E. Green), the PI hypothesizes that these two declines may be attributed to two microbial pathogens: a fungus, and a virus. The PI suggests that these two sites were affected by the same agent as that which decimated the amphibians of Monteverde, Costa Rica, and that the sequential disappearance of amphibians at these three sites over the past 10 years is evidence of a highly contagious pathogen moving through the Central American isthmus. The PI will propose to organize a multidisciplinary Rapid Response and Assessment Team that would attempt to jump ahead of this apparent "front" of amphibian mortality. The team would survey the health of both the amphibian fauna and the environment to document the changes in each during a decline. Likely members would include herpetologists, pathologists, toxicologists, and endocrinologists, parasitologists, and epidemiologists. The team would survey these sites in a systematic way to determine the mechanisms of amphibian declines by surveying all life stages, measuring environmental factors thought to cause or contribute to declines, and collecting individuals for full medical diagnostic evaluations. The team would determine the geographic extent of this decline in Central and South America by surveying select upland areas where declines have occurred, and where declines are expected to occur.