Infection with Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is common in tropical lowland habitats: Implications for amphibian conservation.

ABSTRACT: Numerous species of amphibians declined in Central America during the 1980s and 1990s. These declines mostly affected highland stream amphibians and have been primarily linked to chytridiomycosis, a deadly disease caused by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Since then, the majority of field studies on Bd in the Tropics have been conducted in midland and highland environments (>800 m) mainly because the environmental conditions of mountain ranges match the range of ideal abiotic conditions for Bd in the laboratory. This unbalanced sampling has led researchers to largely overlook host-pathogen dynamics in lowlands, where other amphibian species declined during the same period. We conducted a survey testing for Bd in 47 species (n = 348) in four lowland sit

SUBMITTER: Zumbado-Ulate H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6476760 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature