THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND FUNGAL DISEASE ON ANDEAN MONTANE FROGS

这种两栖动物是长期的幸存者，经历了之前的四次地球大灭绝。通过这些灭绝，不仅所有三目两栖动物都逃脱了灭绝，而且大多数科和属都幸存了下来。然而，全球生物多样性的丧失正在加速，两栖动物是最受威胁的脊椎动物。这有许多潜在的原因，但一种新出现的传染性疾病，壶菌病，由一种高度传染性的真菌病原体引起，与世界范围内的大规模死亡和灭绝有关。气候变化对两栖动物生理的影响被认为是引发壶菌病在中美洲和南美洲流行的机制，假设温度变化的增加降低了两栖动物对真菌感染的免疫力。该项目将通过测量秘鲁安第斯山脉一系列地点的青蛙的热应激和感染动态，调查暴露在高温下是否会增加对疾病的易感性。该项目还将描绘整个南美洲高度易感两栖动物中真菌的历史和现在分布。过去80年来在南美洲许多地点收集的保存完好的博物馆标本将进行测试，以确定真菌病原体的出现是否与两栖动物种群的崩溃同时发生。过去50年可获得的特定地点气候数据将用于评估大规模气候事件或变暖趋势是否与这种真菌病原体的出现和随后的两栖动物物种灭绝有关。这项研究的结果将为保护热带地区两栖动物物种的努力提供信息。了解导致两栖动物物种疾病爆发和随后持续存在的因素，对于制定能够避免生物多样性丧失和减轻流行病影响的战略至关重要。该项目将支持一名早期职业科学家，加强美国和拉丁美洲研究人员之间的合作，支持一名博士后学者的研究培训，并为两名研究生提供实地研究经验。

The amphibians are long-term survivors, having endured four previous planetary mass extinctions. Through these extinctions, not only did all three orders of amphibians escape extinction, but most families and genera survived. However, the global loss of biodiversity is accelerating, and amphibians are the most threatened group of vertebrates. There are many potential causes for this, but an emerging infectious disease, chytridiomycosis, caused by a highly infectious fungal pathogen, is implicated in mass die offs and extinctions worldwide. Effects of climate change on amphibian physiology has been proposed as a mechanism initiating chytridiomycosis epidemics in Central and South America on the assumption that increased temperature variability reduces amphibian immunity to fungal infection. This project will investigate whether exposure to elevated temperatures increases susceptibility to disease by measuring thermal stress and infection dynamics in frogs at a range of sites in the Peruvian Andes. This project will also delineate the historic and present distribution of the fungus in highly susceptible amphibians throughout South America. Preserved museum specimens collected at many sites throughout South America over the last 8 decades will be tested to determine if fungal pathogen emergence is coincident with collapse of amphibian populations. Available site-specific climate data from the past 5 decades will be used to evaluate whether large-scale climatic events or warming trends are associated with the emergence of this fungal pathogen and subsequent extinction of amphibian species. Results from this research will inform conservation efforts to prevent loss of amphibian species in tropical regions. Understanding the factors that contribute to outbreaks and subsequent persistence of disease in amphibian species is essential to developing strategies that can avert the loss of biodiversity and mitigate the impact of epidemics. This project will support an early career scientist, strengthen collaboration between researchers in the United States and Latin America, support the research training of a postdoctoral scholar, and provide field research experiences for two graduate students.