Chytrid in the Pyrenees

RACE team leader Mat Fisher's report from the Pyrenees:
"Lac Arlet used to be the most amphibian rich Pyrenean lakes I knew. Chytrid continues to reap its grisly crop of metamorphs this August and the Alytes are now few and far between. More newt and Rana mortalities too compared against subsequent years."

Photo: (c) Mat Fisher.

Cyclone vs. chytrid

A new paper published in Scientific Reports shows that cyclones may reduce Bd prevalence. Cyclones reduce canopy cover which leads to warmer microclimates. Warmer microclimates reduce Bd infection.
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep13472

Photo: (c) Mat Fisher.

What It’s Like to Watch a Species Go Extinct - or why we study Bd

Karen Lips was a grad student when she came face to face with a mass extinction for the first time. It was the early 1990s, and she was doing research on frogs in the mountains of Costa Rica. At the beginning, they were everywhere. And then, poof: “I came back one year and there were no frogs,” she remembers. Puzzled, she explored other sites—and started turning up corpses. An area that had thrummed with amphibian life had morphed into a graveyard.

Read more here:
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/watching-species-go-extinct-frogs-bd-salamanders-bsal/

Red-bellied newt (Taricha rivularis) Emanuele Biggi/anura.it

Averting a North American biodiversity crisis - a new policy paper in Science

In a new policy paper in Science, Yap et al. "demonstrate the likelihood of Bsal introduction to North America via international trade, the likelihood of species being exposed to Bsal, and the potential impact of species exposure to Bsal."

Bsal found in Alpine newts in Belgium

The salamander chytrid Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans was found in Alpine newts in Belgium.
http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/wetenschap/1.2357495

A great cartoon on the salamander chytrid fungus

Source: http://www.birdandmoon.com/salamander.html

Can the US stop the spread of Bsal?

As the scientific evidence base builds, pressure builds on the policy makers. The U.S. may actually move fast enough to prevent the spread of Bsal.

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2015/salamanders-05-14-2015.html

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dotearth/2015/05/15/pressure-builds-for-swift-u-s-action-against-spreading-salamander-threat/?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0&referrer

(Source: NY Times/Pria N. Ghosh)