Hotspot shelters stimulate frog resistance to chytridiomycosis

Anthony W. Waddle (), Simon Clulow, Amy Aquilina, Erin L. Sauer, Shannon W. Kaiser, Claire Miller, Jennifer A. Flegg, Patricia T. Campbell, Harrison Gallagher, Ivana Dimovski, Yorick Lambreghts, Lee Berger, Lee F. Skerratt and Richard Shine
Additional contact information
Anthony W. Waddle: University of Melbourne
Simon Clulow: Macquarie University
Amy Aquilina: University of Melbourne
Erin L. Sauer: University of Arkansas
Shannon W. Kaiser: Macquarie University
Claire Miller: University of Melbourne
Jennifer A. Flegg: University of Melbourne
Patricia T. Campbell: University of Melbourne at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Harrison Gallagher: Macquarie University
Ivana Dimovski: Macquarie University
Yorick Lambreghts: Macquarie University
Lee Berger: University of Melbourne
Lee F. Skerratt: University of Melbourne
Richard Shine: Macquarie University

Nature, 2024, vol. 631, issue 8020, 344-349

Abstract: Abstract Many threats to biodiversity cannot be eliminated; for example, invasive pathogens may be ubiquitous. Chytridiomycosis is a fungal disease that has spread worldwide, driving at least 90 amphibian species to extinction, and severely affecting hundreds of others1–4. Once the disease spreads to a new environment, it is likely to become a permanent part of that ecosystem. To enable coexistence with chytridiomycosis in the field, we devised an intervention that exploits host defences and pathogen vulnerabilities. Here we show that sunlight-heated artificial refugia attract endangered frogs and enable body temperatures high enough to clear infections, and that having recovered in this way, frogs are subsequently resistant to chytridiomycosis even under cool conditions that are optimal for fungal growth. Our results provide a simple, inexpensive and widely applicable strategy to buffer frogs against chytridiomycosis in nature. The refugia are immediately useful for the endangered species we tested and will have broader utility for amphibian species with similar ecologies. Furthermore, our concept could be applied to other wildlife diseases in which differences in host and pathogen physiologies can be exploited. The refugia are made from cheap and readily available materials and therefore could be rapidly adopted by wildlife managers and the public. In summary, habitat protection alone cannot protect species that are affected by invasive diseases, but simple manipulations to microhabitat structure could spell the difference between the extinction and the persistence of endangered amphibians.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07582-y

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