Journal
PLOS ONE
Volume 14, Issue 9, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219981
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Funding
- call Mountains as Sentinels of Change by the Belmont-Forum [ANR-15-MASC-0001-P3, DFG-SCHM 3059/6-1, NERC-1633948, NSFC-41661144004]
- National Science Foundation [NSF LTREB DEB-1557190, NSF 1633948, NSF 0728279]
- Axa Chair for Functional Mountain Ecology by Axa Research Fund
- National Institutes of Health [NIH 5R01GM109499]
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) [ANR-15-MASC-0001] Funding Source: Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
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Amphibians, the most threatened group of vertebrates, are seen as indicators of the sixth mass extinction on earth. Thousands of species are threatened with extinction and many have been affected by an emerging infectious disease, chytridiomycosis, caused by the fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). However, amphibians exhibit different responses to the pathogen, such as survival and population persistence with infection, or mortality of individuals and complete population collapse after pathogen invasion. Multiple factors can affect host pathogen dynamics, yet few studies have provided a temporal view that encompasses both the epizootic phase (i.e. pathogen invasion and host collapse), and the transition to a more stable co-existence (i.e. recovery of infected host populations). In the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, USA, conspecific populations of frogs currently exhibit dramatically different host/Bd-pathogen dynamics. To provide a temporal context by which present day dynamics may be better understood, we use a Bd qPCR assay to test 1165 amphibian specimens collected between 1900 and 2005. Our historical analyses reveal a pattern of pathogen invasion and eventual spread across the Sierra Nevada over the last century. Although we found a small number of Bd-infections prior to 1970, these showed no sign of spread or increase in infection prevalence over multiple decades. After the late 1970s, when mass die offs were first noted, our data show Bd as much more prevalent and more spatially spread out, suggesting epizootic spread. However, across the similar to 400km(2) area, we found no evidence of a wave-like pattern, but instead discovered multiple, nearly-simultaneous invasions within regions. We found that Bd invaded and spread in the central Sierra Nevada (Yosemite National Park area) about four decades before it invaded and spread in the southern Sierra Nevada (Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks area), and suggest that the temporal pattern of pathogen invasion may help explain divergent contemporary host pathogen dynamics.
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