Authors
Robert Puschendorf, Conrad J Hoskin, Scott D Cashins, KEITH McDONALD, Lee F Skerratt, Jeremy Vanderwal, Ross A Alford
Publication date
2011/10
Journal
Conservation Biology
Volume
25
Issue
5
Pages
956-964
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing Inc
Description
Species that are tolerant of broad environmental gradients may be less vulnerable to epizootic outbreaks of disease. Chytridriomycosis, caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, has been linked to extirpations and extinctions of amphibian species in many regions. The pathogen thrives in cool, moist environments, and high amphibian mortality rates have commonly occurred during chytridiomycosis outbreaks in amphibian populations in high‐elevation tropical rainforests. In Australia several high‐elevation species, including the armored mist frog (Litoria lorica), which is designated as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), were believed to have gone extinct during chytridiomycosis outbreaks in the 1980s and early 1990s. Species with greater elevational ranges disappeared from higher elevations, but remained common in the lowlands. In June 2008 …
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R Puschendorf, CJ Hoskin, SD Cashins, K McDONALD… - Conservation Biology, 2011