Disease and thermal acclimation in a more variable and unpredictable climate

Raffel, Thomas R.; Romansic, John M.; Halstead, Neal T.; McMahon, Taegan A.; Venesky, Matthew D.; Rohr, Jason R.

doi:10.1038/nclimate1659

Cited by 240 publications

(319 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Even if assisted selection does produce genotypes that have the ability to resist or tolerate infection with chytrids, there is no guarantee that these abilities will function when transferred to a natural setting. Research has repeatedly shown how environmental variation can dictate the outcome of the amphibian host/chytrid pathogen interaction and the ability to mount innate immune responses to Bd can be significantly impaired simply by modifying ambient temperature [31,[56][57][58][59]. We do not dismiss the possibility that assisted selection might provide conservation benefits, only caution that the current knowledge base indicates significant research is still required before natural and assisted selection can be applied widely to chytrid mitigation.…”

Section: Horizon-scanning or Wishful Thinking?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mitigating amphibian chytridiomycoses in nature

Garner

Schmidt²,

Martel

et al. 2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

135

156

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Amphibians across the planet face the threat of population decline and extirpation caused by the disease chytridiomycosis. Despite consensus that the fungal pathogens responsible for the disease are conservation issues, strategies to mitigate their impacts in the natural world are, at best, nascent. Reducing risk associated with the movement of amphibians, non-amphibian vectors and other sources of infection remains the first line of defence and a primary objective when mitigating the threat of disease in wildlife. Amphibian-associated chytridiomycete fungi and chytridiomycosis are already widespread, though, and we therefore focus on discussing options for mitigating the threats once disease emergence has occurred in wild amphibian populations. All strategies have shortcomings that need to be overcome before implementation, including stronger efforts towards understanding and addressing ethical and legal considerations. Even if these issues can be dealt with, all currently available approaches, or those under discussion, are unlikely to yield the desired conservation outcome of disease mitigation. The decision process for establishing mitigation strategies requires integrated thinking that assesses disease mitigation options critically and embeds them within more comprehensive strategies for the conservation of amphibian populations, communities and ecosystems. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Tackling emerging fungal threats to animal health, food security and ecosystem resilience’.

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Section: Horizon-scanning or Wishful Thinking?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…R. Soc. B 371: 20160207 by the context-dependent interaction of Bd with the amphibian host [56]. Establishing captive colonies upon which selection can be imposed is a non-trivial task and requires extensive investment and resources.…”

Section: Horizon-scanning or Wishful Thinking?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating amphibian chytridiomycoses in nature

Garner

Schmidt²,

Martel

et al. 2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

135

156

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Temperature-dependence of infection in vivo, however, varies among host species with higher infection levels typically occurring at lower temperatures, probably because of positive temperature-dependence of host immune responses [8,20]. Furthermore, host resistance to Bd can also be affected by variability in temperature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, climate change is also projected to cause changes in the magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events, including variability in temperature on multiple timescales [2][3][4][5]. The importance of short-term climate variability to species interactions remains an important open question in ecology [6], and recent studies suggest that temperature shifts on diurnal, daily and weekly timescales influence host-parasite interactions in ways that can be overlooked by constant-temperature experiments [7][8][9]. Furthermore, organisms are influenced by multiple climatic factors simultaneously, yet to our knowledge no study has experimentally investigated interactive effects of moisture and temperature variability on species interactions in general or on parasitism in particular.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a recent study, Cuban treefrogs (Osteopilus septentrionalis) were less resistant to Bd when exposed to random daily temperature fluctuations or following an abrupt shift in temperature, relative to frogs held at a constant temperature [8], consistent with previous findings that disease-associated frog declines occurred at higher rates following years with elevated month-to-month temperature variability [2]. These patterns were predicted a priori by Raffel et al [20], who postulated that ectothermic hosts would be more susceptible to infection following a shift in temperature, because their immune systems have not yet physiologically adjusted for improved performance at the new temperature, whereas parasites are thought to acclimate more quickly because of their smaller size and faster metabolisms [8]. This prediction derives from the Beneficial Acclimation Hypothesis of thermal biology, which states that organisms should respond adaptively following a temperature shift to improve their physiological performance at the new temperature [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temperature variability and moisture synergistically interact to exacerbate an epizootic disease

et al. 2015

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Climate change is altering global patterns of precipitation and temperature variability, with implications for parasitic diseases of humans and wildlife. A recent study confirmed predictions that increased temperature variability could exacerbate disease, because of lags in host acclimation following temperature shifts. However, the generality of these host acclimation effects and the potential for them to interact with other factors have yet to be tested. Here, we report similar effects of host thermal acclimation (constant versus shifted temperatures) on chytridiomycosis in red-spotted newts (Notophthalmus viridescens). Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) growth on newts was greater following a shift to a new temperature, relative to newts already acclimated to this temperature (158C versus 258C). However, these acclimation effects depended on soil moisture (10, 16 and 21% water) and were only observed at the highest moisture level, which induced greatly increased Bd growth and infection-induced mortality. Acclimation effects were also greater following a decrease rather than an increase in temperature. The results are consistent with previous findings that chytridiomycosis is associated with precipitation, lower temperatures and increased temperature variability. This study highlights host acclimation as a potentially general mediator of climate-disease interactions, and the need to account for context-dependencies when testing for acclimation effects on disease.

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Concurrent Infection of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and Ranavirus among Native Amphibians from Northeastern Oklahoma, USA

et al. 2018

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Global amphibian decline continues to be a great concern despite our increased understanding of the causes behind the observed patterns of the decline, such as habitat modification and infectious diseases. Although there is a large body of literature on the topic of amphibian infectious diseases, pathogen prevalence and distribution among entire communities of species in many regions remain poorly understood. In addition to these geographic gaps in our understanding, past work has focused largely on individual pathogens, either Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) or ranavirus (RV), rather than dual infection rates among host species. We sampled for prevalence and infection load of both pathogens in 514 amphibians across 16 total sites in northeastern Oklahoma. Amphibians were caught by hand, net, or seine; they were swabbed to screen for Bd; and liver tissue samples were collected to screen for RV. Overall results of quantitative PCR assays showed that 7% of screened individuals were infected with RV only, 37% were infected with Bd only, and 9% were infected with both pathogens simultaneously. We also documented disease presence in several rare amphibian species that are currently being monitored as species of concern due to their small population sizes in Oklahoma. This study synthesizes a growing body of research regarding infectious diseases among amphibian communities in the central United States.

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Disease and thermal acclimation in a more variable and unpredictable climate

Cited by 240 publications

References 30 publications

Mitigating amphibian chytridiomycoses in nature

Mitigating amphibian chytridiomycoses in nature

Temperature variability and moisture synergistically interact to exacerbate an epizootic disease

Concurrent Infection of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and Ranavirus among Native Amphibians from Northeastern Oklahoma, USA

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