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As part of a partnership with the USFWS, WV Division of Natural Resources, and The Nature Conservancy, Northeast ARMI staff and a USGS Water Resources hydrologist conducted a field survey in late August for the WV spring salamander, a rare amphibian with known range limited to a single cave in WV. This work is an important contribution of the status assessment for the species, which has been proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Species identification is made via morphological traits, but these may be imperfect, and thus misidentification is highly likely. ARMI is developing models that can accommodate this misidentification error, which will be used to improve the precision and reduce the bias in estimates of population status. In addition to field surveys, USGS ARMI will contribute morphologic and genetic analyses, and water quality assessment to identify and characterize potential threats, to address information needs for the USFWS listing decision, due in 2020.

Previous work by ARMI scientists have shown the important impact of invasive crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) on endangered and threatened amphibian species in southern California (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cobi.13198 ). New published research has shown that these non-native predators may increase disease vectors (e.g. mosquitoes) through predation on native predators of these vectors such as dragonfly nymphs (https://www.usgs.gov/center-news/invasive-crayfish-increase-number-mosquitoes-southern-california-mountains). This work has also been highlighted in a recent National Geographic report on the study (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/08/swamp-crayfish-crawfish-mosquitoes-disease-animals/).

The USGS has been leading the recovery efforts for the Southern Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs (Rana muscosa) since 2000, in partnership with the USFWS, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, US Forest Service, Los Angeles Zoo, San Diego Zoo Global, and other partners. On June 26 and 27, 2018, 1000 tadpoles produced from captive frogs raised at the Los Angeles Zoo were released into the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument for the first time. These were placed into two different watersheds. More releases are scheduled for later in the summer, but this is a pivotal step in the recovery of this species back onto federal lands within its historic habitats.

Los Angeles Times news story at this link: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-rare-frog-release-20180627-story.html

In a new study, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists ranked more than 160 species and sub-species of reptiles and amphibians in terms of their vulnerability to vehicle strikes and habitat fragmentation from roadways. Their results are published in the journal Landscape Ecology.

Although most of the public associates vehicle strikes with mammals, reptiles and amphibians can also encounter cars on the road. These animals are often either too small for the driver to notice, or too slow to escape the car's path. Some species also migrate long distances or have relatively large territories, and may need to risk crossing a roadway to access important habitat. Some species avoid roads altogether, which potentially reduces the amount of available habitat and separates populations that would otherwise mix and increase genetic diversity.

Currently, transportation planning agencies like the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) use underpasses, overpasses, and physical barriers to reduce the negative effects of roadways on wildlife. However, they can't manage these side-effects for every species because of limited funding or resources. Species at highest risk of negative road impacts are difficult to identify due to a lack of available data or research, particularly on reptiles and amphibians. As a result, resource managers had to identify high risk species by professional opinion or by the few studies related specifically to roads.

To help provide Caltrans and other transportation agencies with the information needed to prioritize species for management, USGS researchers used road ecology literature to develop an objective ranking system for 166 species and subspecies of native Californian reptiles and amphibians. In the ranking system, an animal's vulnerability to vehicle strikes or habitat fragmentation depended on the way members of the species used the space around them, and on different aspects of their life history. For instance, species with large home ranges and seasonal migrations were more likely to encounter roads. Likewise, species that took time to reach sexual maturity and had fewer young were more likely to be affected by the loss of members of their population from vehicle strikes. The scientists found that all turtle and tortoise species, 72% of snakes, 50% of frogs and toads, 18% of lizards, and 17% of salamander species in California ranked at "high" or "very high" risk from potential negative road impacts. Species at very high risk included listed Federal or State endangered or threatened species, like the California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii), Mohave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), and the San Francisco gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia). Snakes, turtles, and tortoises tended to rank at higher risk for negative road impacts, since many migrate or have large home ranges, tend not to avoid roads, are long lived, and give birth to relatively few young.

Species that use both terrestrial and aquatic habitats may be particularly susceptible to reduced habitat connectivity. The giant gartersnake (Thamnophis gigas), for example, is a semi-aquatic species found in the Central Valley of California. After losing more than 90% of its historical wetland habitats to agriculture and other forms of human development, this federally and state-listed snake now relies on remaining wetlands, rice fields, and agricultural canals for aquatic habitat. Roads separating the species' terrestrial and aquatic habitat could affect its populations. "Overall, this is meant to be a first step in identifying reptile and amphibian species that may be at highest risk from roads within their habitat. We hope this assessment will help transportation planning agencies and species managers by highlighting species that may need special attention. This can include considering further research and implementing terrestrial and aquatic mitigation solutions to reduce mortality and to maintain or enhance population connectivity," says Cheryl Brehme, lead author and biologist with the USGS Western Ecological Research Center.

This research was funded by the USGS and Caltrans. For more information, read the paper online and explore the project webpage on WERC's website. Amphibian research in this study falls within the national, USGS-led Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI).

The Amphibian Research and Monitoring Program has a reputation for taking wildlife monitoring to new levels using robust methods that allow synthetic data analyses across landscape scales. Because of this reputation, ARMI scientist Dr. Erin Muths was invited to lecture and mentor at a workshop in Hyderabad, India in November 2018. The workshop was titled Long term Wildlife Monitoring: Ecological and Statistical Considerations. The workshop was one component of an Indo-U.S. 21st Century Knowledge Initiative grant to Dr. Barry Noon at Colorado State University. The workshop was hosted by Dr. Karthikeyan Vasudevan at the Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES), Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB). Attendees included early graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and early career professionals. Interactions within and outside the classroom were completely positive.

The workshop focused on analytical methods, applications to particular datasets, field techniques, and examples of long-term monitoring programs (from organizational structure and methodology to data and products). The workshop material was rounded out with a variety of speakers including Dr. Arjun Gopalaswamy, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Oxford University, Dr. Kim McConkey, University of Nottingham-Malaysia, and Dr. Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment.

In addition to lecturing, Erin also spent time mentoring new graduate students and is, (along with Dr. David Miller, former ARMI post-doc, now at The Pennsylvania State University), a member of Gayathri Sreedharan's PhD committee (Jawaharlal Nehru Univesity, New Delhi / CCMB-LaCones). Ms Sreedharan's dissertation title is: Dynamics of enzootic/epizootic Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in a community of stream amphibians from the Western Ghats.

This was a fantastic opportunity to help to build capacity in a country with stunning wildlife, but few resources for conservation. This effort illustrates ARMI's ability to address amphibian conservation needs, but also showcases the impact of USGS programs and leadership in the global community. Building partnerships and sharing information abroad deepens our understanding of the issues and increases our ability to effectively address partner science needs at home.

The calls of frogs on warm nights in the spring are a welcome sound, telling listeners that the seasons are changing and summer is coming. Today, however, ponds that once echoed with the chirps, chuckles and calls of frogs and toads are falling silent around the world.

This loss is worrying. Amphibians are the environment's canaries in the coal mine. Their declines provide early warning signs to scientists that stressors like habitat loss, climate change, pollution and disease are making ecosystems unhealthy. Without amphibians, insect and algae populations multiply, causing cascading effects on other organisms ? including humans...

Read full article here: https://theconversation.com/saving-amphibians-from-a-deadly-fungus-means-acting-without-knowing-all-the-answers-81739

Associated ARMI publication: https://armi.usgs.gov/search/results.php?productid=184774

An interpretive sign was installed on August 1st, 2017 near the headquarters and visitor information office at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR, Sasabe, Arizona). The sign provides information on the federally-threatened Chiricahua Leopard Frog (Lithobates chiricahuensis) and is located next to an example of typical habitat (a cienaga). In addition to the biology and behavior of this desert frog, the sign gives a friendly reminder to brake for amphibians on Refuge roads, especially during the summer monsoon season when amphibians are more likely to be moving between habitats; in the desert, as for many animals, the cienagas and cattle tanks retain water and are key refuges during drought.

This interpretive sign, the first highlighting an amphibian on BANWR, was originally designed to educate visitors about the Chiricahua Leopard Frog, but the sign has become a template and an inspiration for further educational efforts. Additional signs are in the works at BANWR to provide interpretive information along a planned nature walk near Refuge headquarters and at the flight pen for the federally endangered Masked Bobwhite Quail. Based on the design of the Chiricahua Leopard Frog sign, interpretive information is being created to highlight all of the diverse flora and fauna at BANWR and give the visitor a better idea of the complex and interconnected lives of the organisms they might encounter as they enjoy the scenery and arid landscape of the Refuge.

The Chiricahua Leopard Frog interpretive sign was a concept initiated during a stakeholder meeting in February 2017, at BANWR, where decision science methods were applied to discuss refuge priorities (e.g., Chiricahua Leopard Frog conservation, general refuge management). Stakeholders included personnel from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Geological Survey, and the University of Georgia. The sign was designed through collaborative effort among those entities and funded via Jones-Lovich grant in Southwestern Herpetology from the Herpetologists' League. Work on declining amphibians at BANWR and the Borderlands was initiated by Cecil Schwalbe (USGS, ARMI-retired) and has been continued by Brent Sigafus, Blake Hossack and Erin Muths (Rocky Mountain and Southwest ARMI).

A new graduate student has started work on boreal toads this summer in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). John Crockett completed his undergraduate degree at Colby College and successfully garnered a funded graduate position in Larissa Bailey's lab at Colorado State University (CSU). He will be working with ARMI scientist Erin Muths and Larissa Bailey to examine factors that influence boreal toad survival from egg to one year old toads. During the past 15 years, breeding by boreal toads has been documented at only six sites within RMNP and in 2016 breeding occurred in only four of these remaining sites. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a fungal pathogen which causes a fatal skin disease in amphibians, has been credited as the cause of the recent and rapid declines of boreal toads in RMNP and has been identified at three of these sites. Quantifying breeding success and understanding factors that impact survival in early life stages of toads are poorly known aspects of their ecology. One of these factors is the potential negative interaction between trout and aquatic stages of toads (egg and tadpoles). Laboratory evidence suggests that trout will "taste" tadpoles, while not lethal, it does effect survival. A behavioral component to this project will examine interactions between trout and aquatic stages in the field. In addition to newly collected data on behavior, egg deposition, hatching success, and metamorph survival, this jointly-funded project will capitalize on long-term existing data from Muths' lab and RMNP. We anticipate that this information will help us understand factors that impact early life stages of toads and identify situations where we may be able to intervene and improve survival rates, thus informing management strategies and contributing to conservation of the toad.

The 2016 ARMI meeting was held at the National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) in Madison, Wisconsin. ARMI scientists met with disease researchers from NWHC to develop a new disease strategy designed to meet the need for increased information on how aspects of the environment can be managed to understand and reduce the effect of disease on amphibian populations. Disease has been an integral part of ARMI efforts since the inception of this program when the amphibian chytrid fungus and its devastating effects on amphibians was first identified. Now, the complex topic of disease has again come to the forefront of public and scientific consciousness with the recent emergence of a number of infectious diseases such as white-nosed syndrome in bats and the salamander chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans) in amphibians. Additional topics at the meeting focused on research results, including projects as diverse as decision science, amphibian presence relative to gas and oil development, demographic estimates for a number of focal populations, international collaborations, and modelling and methods development. Synergies resulting from this cross discipline (e.g., biology, contaminants, water, disease) effort are critical to develop the knowledge base, direction and tools to effectively combat the global issue of amphibian decline.

In 2016 ARMI and National Wildlife Health Center scientists conducted a nationwide sampling effort to detect the salamander chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal). Bsal is native to Asia where indigenous salamanders carry the fungus without disease symptoms. However, Bsal has been spread through human facilitation to Europe where it has been implicated in major population die-offs of wild salamanders. To date, no occurrence of Bsal has been documented in wild salamander populations in North America, but there is reason to think that it could arrive or already be here.

Between 2010 and 2014, 99% of the 750,000 salamanders imported into the U.S. were of Asian origin. Due to these obvious threats the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has halted importation of many salamanders, including the Asian species popular in the pet trade. However, we need to know if Bsal is already present. The introduction of Bsal into North American wild salamander populations could be particularly problematic given that North America is a global hotspot of salamander diversity being home to nearly half of all salamander species worldwide.

A current map of U.S. sites that have been surveyed to detect Bsal by the ARMI program is available on the ARMI website ( https://armi.usgs.gov/Bsal-studies/ ).

New research combining long-term data sets from UC Santa Barbara biologist Roland Knapp and Emeritus ARMI biologist Gary Fellers shows that after decades of decline — and despite continued exposure to stressors including non-native fish, disease and pesticides — the abundance of endangered Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs (Rana sierrae) has increased seven-fold throughout Yosemite, and at an annual rate of 11 percent, over the 20-year study period.

Those increases, occurring over a large landscape and across hundreds of populations, Knapp said, provide a rare example of amphibian recovery at an ecologically relevant scale. The findings appear in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“We now have a parkwide picture of what’s happening in Yosemite, and it shows convincingly that these frog populations are increasing dramatically, ” said Knapp. “These new results show that, given sufficient time and the availability of intact habitat, the frogs can recover despite the human-caused challenges they face.”

In this comprehensive new study, Knapp teamed with researchers Gary Fellers and Patrick Kleeman (U.S. Geological Survey), David Miller (Penn State University), Vance Vredenburg (San Francisco State University), Erica Rosenblum (UC Berkeley) and Cheryl Briggs (UCSB). Their study analyzed more than 7,000 frog surveys conducted by the USGS and UCSB researchers at hundreds of sites over more than 20 years.

“With this unprecedented, robust data set, we could look for patterns in frog population trends, and potential factors that might be influencing frogs in Yosemite,” Fellers said. “Fortunately, and unexpectedly, we found that in spite of a host of potential factors that could be working to depress or eliminate frog populations, the overall pattern has been for a slow, but widespread recovery of Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs.”

Chief among the culprits in Rana sierrae’s once-stark decline is deadly fungal disease called chytridiomycosis, which affects amphibians worldwide and has caused at least 200 species of frogs and salamanders to become extinct within the last 30 years.

To understand how frogs could have recovered in Yosemite despite ongoing chytridiomycosis, in addition to the extensive field surveys, the study also included a laboratory experiment that demonstrated that frogs in Yosemite that have been exposed to the disease for decades are less susceptible than are frogs from populations that are naïve to the disease.

Also a big factor in the original decline: fish introduced years ago into Yosemite waters in the name of recreational angling. According to Knapp, the new research provides clear evidence that efforts in Yosemite to reduce impacts caused by nonnative fish, such as the cessation of fish stocking 25 years ago to restore some lakes to their natural fishless condition, are succeeding.

Describing the group’s findings as “profoundly encouraging,” Kleeman said, “The fact that this is occurring at a landscape scale in the face of multiple stressors lends hope that recovery of the species may indeed be possible.” Still, he cautioned, “Significant population declines are still occurring in other parts of this species’ range, and more work remains to be done to ensure the survival of this emblematic frog of the Sierra Nevada.”

Added Knapp: “The observed recovery of frogs is particularly important because it is based on all of the yellow-legged frog populations in Yosemite. That provides a really strong foundation for the implementation of effective recovery measures.”

ARMI scientists Blake Hossack (NOROCK), Brent Sigafus (SBSC) and Erin Muths (FORT), and ARMI post doc Thierry Chambert traveled to Sonora, Mexico, to survey for Sonoran Tiger Salamanders in May. Reports existed of the presence of this salamander in Sonora, but the spatial extent of its range is unknown. The Sonoran Tiger Salamander is federally endangered in the US and is found only in the San Rafael Valley in southern Arizona. The identification of additional populations in nearby Sonora has implications for multiple conservation concerns including population biology, genetics, and disease. Data collected about its presence and abundance across the border will contribute to the identification of management objectives and subsequent implementation of conservation actions. The surveys were a collaborative effort with logistical support from Naturalia (http://www.naturalia.org.mx/) that included the expertise of Naturalia employees Daniel Toyos and Ramon Babuca. The trip also benefitted from assistance from Guillermo Molina (Instituto Tecnológico Superior De Cananea), Julio Lemos Espinal (UNAM), and students David Hurtado and Aline Estrella. Jim Rorabaugh contributed much to the trip by sharing knowledge of the Sonoran system gained from his previous expeditions focused on salamanders in Mexico. The effort was based at Rancho Los Fresnos, a Naturalia property located north of the town of Cananea and adjacent to the US–Mexico border. The group sampled a variety of sites on Rancho Los Fresnos, as well as surrounding ranches and locations to the south of Cananea. Tiger salamanders reside primarily in man-made or modified earthen stock tanks. These habitats were seined for salamanders and water samples were collected to test for environmental DNA (eDNA) from salamanders, invasive American bullfrogs, federally-threatened (USA) Chiricahua leopard frogs, and pathogens that cause amphibian diseases. Buccal swabs were collected from captured salamanders for genetic analyses (there is uncertainty in determining the difference among closely related salamanders in the field); and skin swabs were collected to test for disease (both Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans and B. dendrobatidis). This ongoing project has already produced one publication (Hossack et al. 2016. Notes on the Distribution of Tiger Salamanders (Presumed Ambystoma mavortium stebbinsi) in Sonora, Mexico. Herpetological Review 47(2): 177-180), and another is in preparation (Hossack et al. Informing recovery of an imperiled, endemic salamander: coupled dynamics and test of drought-mediated coexistence with invasive predators).

LAUREL, Md. -- New U.S. Geological Survey-led research suggests that even though amphibians are severely declining worldwide, there is no smoking gun – and thus no simple solution – to halting or reversing these declines.

“Implementing conservation plans at a local level will be key in stopping amphibian population losses, since global efforts to reduce or lessen threats have been elusive,” said Evan Grant, a USGS research wildlife biologist who led the study published in Scientific Reports today. “This research changes the way we need to think about amphibian conservation by showing that local action needs to be part of the global response to amphibian declines, despite remaining questions in what is causing local extinctions.”

Amphibian declines are a global phenomenon that this new research demonstrates has continued unabated in the United States since at least the 1960's, and which are occurring even in protected national parks and refuges. Scientists have broadly linked declines to environmental factors like climate, human influence such as land-use change, and contaminants and disease, but have not been able to use actual scientific data on a large scale to discern causes of the ongoing disappearance of amphibian populations.

The new study is the first to test this linkage at a continental scale, and finds that the presence and intensity of the four main threats – human influence, disease, pesticide application, and climate change varies substantially across the US. The causes of the declines are more variable – and more locally driven – across the United States than had been assumed.

For example, the research provides evidence that the average decline in overall amphibian populations is 3.79 percent per year, which supports previous USGS-led research findings from 2013 that showed a similar rate of loss, though the new research finds that the decline rate is more severe in some regions, such as the West Coast and the Rocky Mountains. If this rate remains unchanged, these species would disappear from half of the habitats they occupy in about 20 years.

"Losing 3 or 4 percent of amphibian populations might not sound like a big deal but small losses year in and year out quickly lead to dramatic and consequential declines,” said USGS ecologist Michael Adams, a study coauthor and the lead for the USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative, which studies amphibian trends and causes of declines.

David Miller, a professor at Penn State University and the lead biometrician in the study, summarized the extent of the effort.

"This study involved a truly comprehensive and collaborative effort to bring together data from researchers across the United States,” Miller said. “We combined nearly half a million actual observations of 84 species across 61 study areas to answer questions about the causes of wide-scale amphibian declines.”

The research, “Quantitative evidence for the effects of multiple drivers on continental-scale amphibian declines,” was led by Evan Grant, USGS; David Miller, Penn State University; Erin Muths, USGS; and 22 others. The study was published in the open-access journal Scientific Reports. Read the full text version here: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep25625

This week, our very own eccentric biologist, Robert Fisher, gave an interview on KPCC about amphibian declines in Southern California.

The follow up article was posted online. You can view it here: http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/05/23/60926/california-s-amphibians-threatened-by-climate-chan/

Elsewhere, Evan Grant communicated with VOA News, Field and Stream magazine, and UPI.com in hope of reaching out to the public on the current state of Amphibians.

Their stories can be viewed here: http://www.voanews.com/content/mht-unabated-amphibian-decline-found-to-have-myriad-causes/3342617.html

Here: http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/field-notes/new-research-confirms-large-scale-amphibian-die-off

And here: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2016/05/23/Amphibians-in-continued-global-decline/8341464025350/

Update: One more article to add to the flurry of recent amphibian updates: http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/22906/20160525/are-amphibians-about-to-go-extinct-the-amphibian-crisis-is-worse-than-you-think.htm

Wetlands and interconnected uplands are vitally important for human well-being and sustaining biodiversity (1-3). For example, they limit flooding, recharge ground water, filter contaminants, help regulate climate, and provide food and recreation, all of which are invaluable ecosystem services (2, 3). In addition, although wetlands per se cover only a small proportion of the earth’s surface, they support a substantially larger proportion of the world’s biodiversity by providing habitats many species require to persist across landscapes over time, including amphibians (4-7). Yet, human activities related to various land uses, the burning of fossil fuels, and the release of contaminants into the environment have reduced the quantity and quality of wetlands across the world’s ecoregions, disproportionately so relative to other land-cover types, and pose ongoing threats to remaining wetlands, the ecosystem services they provide, and the populations of amphibians and other organisms they sustain (2, 4, 5, 8, 9).

At a minimum, most U.S. amphibian species require wetlands to reproduce (6). However, as has happened in other countries, agricultural production, urban expansion, and other land uses have caused the loss or degradation of many U.S. wetlands (5, 10). Furthermore, persistent droughts in western states have caused extensive wetland desiccation recently (11) and increasingly non-stationary climate dynamics threaten to alter past patterns of wetland surface-water availability at even broader spatiotemporal scales, as well as to exacerbate effects from other global change factors (2, 12). More insidiously perhaps, the presence of pathogens that induce lethal amphibian diseases (13), or invasive species that harm native amphibians (14), essentially have caused the loss or degradation of some U.S. wetlands as viable amphibian habitat and could become more pervasive due to climate-induced changes in environmental conditions (12). Thus, assorted drivers of global change have impacted many U.S. wetlands deleteriously, with potentially widespread past, current, and future repercussions for the long-term persistence and conservation of amphibian populations (8, 9).

For these reasons, ARMI scientists and their collaborators have been assessing relations between factors associated with global change, wetland conditions, and the statuses of amphibian populations in each ARMI region across the United States. This research has been conducted most often, but not exclusively, on public lands managed by the Department of Interior and addressed questions regarding the impacts of agricultural land use, contamination due to non-agricultural chemical compounds, oil and gas production, emergent diseases, invasive species, fire, ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B), and climate ( http://armi.usgs.gov/table1.php ). Results from these studies have shown the large extent to which the conversion of native land cover to agricultural crops resulted in wetland losses in Iowa, that wetlands in various regions often contain agricultural and non-agricultural contaminants and amphibian pathogens at levels sufficient to be injurious to amphibians or cause population declines, and that historically non-native species have invaded wetlands in some regions and effectively reduced habitat quality for populations of native amphibian species. ARMI researchers also described how effects of western wildfires on wetlands were highly variable and dependent upon wetland characteristics and burn severity whereas levels of dissolved organic carbon in most study wetlands were sufficient to attenuate UV-B rapidly and reduce threats to amphibians in the water. In addition, ARMI scientists studying the impacts of variable climate dynamics on wetland surface-water availability have characterized key relations that underlay the vulnerability of many wetlands and, in turn, amphibian populations to climate change.

Wetlands are fundamentally important natural resources that are vulnerable to the forces of global change (4, 5). As part of assessing the statuses of U.S. amphibian populations and causes of declines (15), ARMI scientists have measured how various drivers of global change have altered the quantity and quality of wetlands in different parts of the country. Results from such research provide resource managers and other stakeholders a unique set of information relevant for conserving wetlands and amphibians both regionally and nationally. They also help to address a larger national need for scientific information on the availability of surface waters for sustaining key ecological processes and providing vital ecosystem services in the face of global change. For more information on ARMI wetlands research in specific areas of the country, please contact the individuals listed in Table 1 ( http://armi.usgs.gov/table1.php ) or peruse relevant ARMI publications ( http://armi.usgs.gov/search/index.php ).

Literature cited

1. Gibbons JW. 2003. Terrestrial habitat: a vital component for herpetofauna of isolated wetlands. Wetlands 23(3):630-635.
2. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Wetlands and Water Synthesis. World Resources Institute. Washington, D.C. 68 pages.
3. Zedler JB. 2003. Wetlands at your service: reducing impacts of agriculture at the watershed scale. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1(2):65-72.
4. Dudgeon D, Arthington AH, Gessner MO, Kawabata ZI, Knowler DJ, et al. 2006. Freshwater biodiversity: importance, threats, status and conservation challenges. Biological Review 81:163-182.
5. Zedler JB, Kercher S. 2005. Wetland resources: status, trends, ecosystem services, and restorability. Annual Review of Environmental Resources 30:39-74.
6. Lannoo ML, Gallant AL, Nanjappa P, Blackburn L, Hendricks R. 2005. Introduction. In: Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species. ML Lannoo (ed). University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California. 1094 pages.
7. Gibbons JW, Winne CT, Scott DE, Willson JD, Glaudas X, et al. 2006. Remarkable amphibian biomass and abundance in an isolated wetland: implications for wetland conservation. Conservation Biology 20(5):1457-1465.
8. Hof C, Araujo, MB, Jetz W, Rahbek C. 2011. Additive threats from pathogens, climate, and land-use change for global amphibian diversity. Nature 480:515-519.
9. Wake DB. 2012. Facing extinction in real time. Science 335:1052-1053.
10. Gallant AL, Sadinski W, Roth MF, Rewa CA. 2011. Changes in historical Iowa land cover as context for assessing the environmental benefits of current and future conservation efforts on agricultural lands. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 66(3):67A-77A.
11. McMenamin SK, Hadly EA, Wright CK. 2008. Climatic change and wetland desiccation cause amphibian decline in Yellowstone National Park. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105(44):16988-16993.
12. Rahel FJ, Olden JD. 2008. Assessing the effects of climate change on aquatic invasive species. Conservation Biology 22(3):521-533.
13. Muths E, Corn PS, Pessier AP, Green DE. 2003. Evidence for disease-related amphibian decline in Colorado. Biological Conservation 110:357-365.
14. D’Amore A, Kirby E, McNicholas M. 2009. Invasive species shifts ontogenetic resource partitioning and microhabitat use of a threatened native amphibian. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 19(5):534-541.
15. Adams MJ, Miller DAW, Muths E, Corn PS, Grant EHC, et al. 2013. Trends in amphibian occupancy in the United States. PLoS ONE 8(5): e64347.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064347.

A deadly fungus causing population crashes in wild European salamanders could emerge in the United States and threaten already declining amphibians here, according to a recent USGS report.

The Department of the Interior is working proactively to protect the nation’s amphibians. The USGS report highlights cooperative research and management efforts needed to develop and implement effective pre-invasion and post-invasion disease-management strategies if Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) enters and affects salamanders within the United States. In January, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service published a rule listing 201 salamander species as injurious under the Lacey Act, which will reduce the likelihood of introduction of Bsal into the country.

Although Bsal has not yet been found in wild U.S. salamander populations, scientists caution it is likely to emerge here because of the popularity of captive salamanders as household pets, in classrooms and in zoos; the captive amphibian trade is a known source of salamanders afflicted with the fungus.

Amphibians are the most endangered groups of vertebrates worldwide, with another fungus closely related to Bsal(Bd) contributing to amphibian die-offs and extinctions globally over the last two decades.

“Based on the kinds of species affected and the fact that the United States has the highest salamander diversity in the world, this new pathogen is a major threat with the potential to exacerbate already severe amphibian declines,” said Evan Grant, ARMI biologist and lead author of the USGS report. “We have the unusual opportunity to develop and apply preventative management actions in advance.”

Bsal was first identified in 2013 as the cause of mass wild salamander die-offs in the Netherlands and Belgium. Captive salamander die-offs due to Bsal have occurred in the United Kingdom and Germany. Scientists believe Bsal originated in Asia and spread to wild European populations through the import and export of salamanders.

The USGS brought together scientists and managers from federal and state agencies that oversee resource conservation and management to identify research needs and management responses before Bsal arrives and becomes entrenched in the country. USGS, the USFWS, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Defense, National Park Service, zoos, and U.S. and international universities participated in the Bsal workshop.

Key findings in the report include:

1. Bsal is highly likely to emerge in U.S. populations of wild salamanders through imports of potentially infected salamanders.

2. Management actions targeted at Bsal containment after arrival in the United States may be relatively ineffective in reducing its spread.

3. A coordinated response, including rapid information sharing, is necessary to plan and respond to this potential crisis.

4. Early detection of Bsal at key amphibian import locations, in high-risk wild populations, and in field-collected samples is necessary to quickly and effectively implement management responses.

The workshop and Open-File Report were supported by USGS ARMI and the USGS Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis.

To read the report, go to: http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20151233

The scientists of The Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative traded their field clothes for suits in December. Seven ARMI scientists gave presentations to partners and amphibian enthusiasts from the Department of Interior and other Federal Agencies at the Main Interior Building just off the Washington D.C. Mall on December 4th2015. The five-minute presentations were made in an “Ignite” style which means that each speaker has only 20 slides that advance automatically every 15 seconds. These talks were entertaining and dynamic, and packed with information about topics as diverse as the salamander chytrid fungus, contaminants, oil and gas, synthetic approaches to catalyze understanding of amphibian declines, reintroduction successes, and innovative ways to move conservation decision-making forward. Following the Ignite session, the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, Amphibian Survival Alliance, and Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy sponsored a short reception. The reception was designed to encourage follow-up conversation among ARMI scientists and partners with the aim of developing relationships and talking about goals and needs that might be addressed by ARMI. A number of new collaborations are now in development. This event at Main Interior was in conjunction with the annual ARMI meeting that was held at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, hosted by Dr. Roy McDiarmid, a 2015 “Friend of ARMI”.

The salamander chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans; Bsal) was described in 2014, when die-offs in fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) populations were reported in Europe. Susceptibility to this pathogen varies, but lethality is indicated in the families Salamandridae and Plethodontidae and members of both families occur in the US. Based on this endemicity, the discontinuity of the global incidence of Bsal, and the popularity of salamanders as pets, the emergence of this pathogen in Europe is presumed to have originated via the pet trade.

Over 28 million amphibians were imported in the US over a 6 year period during the last decade and that importation rate has not declined. Thus, there is serious concern that the disease may be introduced into the US in the near future, if it is not already present. This is particularly alarming because the eastern US is home to the highest diversity of salamanders in the world, including 141 species in the known susceptible family, Plethodontidae. Bsal is also known to be lethal to other US genera in the family Salamandridae (the rough skinned newt, Taricha granulosa, in the Pacific Northwest, and the Eastern newt Notophthalmus viridescens). This pathogen has the potential to have devastating consequences for native US salamanders, similar to extirpations observed in frog species in South America and Australia.

Therefore, a primary objective is to design a sampling strategy to detect the occurrence of the disease in the US (i.e., surveillance). Regardless of whether the disease already occurs in the US, a monitoring design must be developed to identify, with sufficient power, the probability the disease occurs in amphibian populations throughout the US, which must be assessed annually along with population estimates to understand the spread of Bsal and the fate of infected populations. A monitoring program in absence of a management plan is of limited use, and the design of a surveillance and monitoring program must consider possible management responses to monitoring results.

The threat of Bsal to US species provides a unique opportunity to address the introduction, spread, population effects, and control strategies for a novel infectious disease before we are dealing with widespread declines in native populations. By framing this crisis as an opportunity for learning and approaching the problem in a formal decision making context, we will increase the probabilities of early detection, containment, and successful mitigation of the Bsal pathogen. This working group will also provide a template for planning actions for future novel infectious diseases.

There is no coordinated effort to bring together scientists, managers, and policy makers to confront this crisis. In fact, such an approach to emerging infectious diseases is unprecedented, though this conceptual approach has been suggested in other disease outbreak contexts. We propose to bring together scientists, managers, and policy makers to develop an optimal surveillance and monitoring plan based on an adaptive management framework. The plan will also prescribe potential actions based on theoretical but likely scenarios develop from our experience with the amphibian chytrid fungus (Bd) in the US and other countries and the recent experience of our colleagues in Europe with Bsal. We will use a formal, structured working group with participation from scientists and managers from the US and Europe to frame an adaptive management and monitoring plan for this disease.

A formal working group, led by Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) scientists at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (Evan Grant), Fort Collins Science Center (Erin Muths) and Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center (Mike Adams) is scheduled to be held at the Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis in Fort Collins, CO in June.

This year the annual ARMI meeting was a no-host event held outside of Denver in early December. This short meeting focused on in-depth discussions about management questions, basic science, and cross-discipline, integrative research to address amphibian declines. Topics included disease, methodologies, web-site and data management advances, and outreach.

The amphibian chytrid fungus is an aquatic fungus implicated as a contributor to amphibian declines worldwide. Most research has focused on the dynamics of the pathogen in its amphibian hosts, with little emphasis on the ecology of the fungus in the environment. Therefore, we investigated patterns of amphibian chytrid fungus occupancy and density in amphibian habitats using occupancy models, powerful tools for estimating site occupancy and detection probability. This study provided evidence that the fungus occurs in the environment year-round, and its density varies seasonally. We detected the amphibian chytrid fungus in 47% of sites sampled, but estimated that it occupied 61% of sites, highlighting the importance of accounting for imperfect detection. When the amphibian chytrid fungus was present, there was a 95% chance of detecting it with four samples of 600 ml of water or five samples of 60 mL. Our findings provide important baseline information to advance the study of Bd disease ecology, and advance our understanding of amphibian exposure to free-living Bd in aquatic habitats over time.

For more coverage from Environmental Monitor, follow the jump: http://www.fondriest.com/news/new-amphibian-chytrid-fungus-tests-ease-search-wide-ranging-frog-disease.htm