Emerging Infectious Disease ISSN: 1080-6059

Emerging Infectious Diseases and Amphibian Population Declines

Peter Daszak*

, Lee Berger†‡, Andrew A. Cunningham§, Alex D. Hyatt†, D. Earl Green¶, and Rick Speare‡

Author affiliations: *Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA; †Australian Animal Health Laboratory, Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization, Geelong, Victoria, Australia; ‡School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia; §Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, United Kingdom; and ¶National Wildlife Health Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

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Figure 3

Diagrammatic representation of the range of disease outcomes in populations of amphibians affected by a Batrachochytrium-like pathogen. Factors that hypothetically predispose some amphibian populations to declines are illustrated. In this model, host ecologic traits (left side of pyramid) and parasite biologic traits (right side of pyramid) combine to produce declines in a specific group of amphibian species that have low fecundity, are stream-breeding habitat specialists, and occur in montane r

Figure 3. Diagrammatic representation of the range of disease outcomes in populations of amphibians affected by a Batrachochytrium-like pathogen. Factors that hypothetically predispose some amphibian populations to declines are illustrated. In this model, host ecologic traits (left side of pyramid) and parasite biologic traits (right side of pyramid) combine to produce declines in a specific group of amphibian species that have low fecundity, are stream-breeding habitat specialists, and occur in montane regions. These characteristics predispose them to population declines after introduction of a waterborne pathogen with a low preferred developmental temperature and ability to persist at low host population densities.1

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¹Note that the relative number of mass death events decreases with increasing impact on population.

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