Human impact modulates chytrid fungus occurrence in amphibians in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Here we investigate the influence of scale on different drivers influencing the occurrence of the chytridfungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil. We used gridded values of proxies of the abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic components of landscapes where Bd infects amphibians. Building upon disease prevalence data obtained from a previous work, we fitted GLS multiple regressionmodels using extracted values of the three predictors for each prevalence centroid in space, explicitlycontrolling for spatial autocorrelation among predictors. To test for the effect of scale on driving themacroecology of Bd infection, we performed tests at different spatial scales. We then used model selection procedures to evaluate the relative contribution of the different predictors on the occurrence of thefungus. The Human Footprint Index better explained a pathogenic species occurrence than largely studiedbiotic and abiotic factors (i.e., host species distribution and minimum monthly potential evapotranspiration). That effect was, however, not observed at landscape scale, where we found no difference amongthe relative influence of predictors. Our results indicate that human-mediated impacts on environmentscan be strong drivers of spread of infectious diseases on native faunas worldwide, thus, suggesting thatanthropogenic landscapes may create favourable conditions for the occurrence of this and other infectiousdiseases. (c) 2022 Associac, similar to ao Brasileira de Ci <^>encia Ecol ' ogica e Conservac, similar to ao. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is anopen access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Automated summary

This study investigates the influence of scale on different drivers affecting the occurrence of the chytrid fungus in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil. The Human Footprint Index was found to have a greater impact on the occurrence of the pathogenic species compared to biotic and abiotic factors. However, no differences in the relative influence of predictors were observed at the landscape scale.