# Another climate change/chytrid paper



## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

From the Proceedings of the Royal Society B:

*Climate change and outbreaks of amphibian
chytridiomycosis in a montane area
of Central Spain; is there a link?*Jaime Bosch1,*, Luı´s M. Carrascal1, Luis Dura´n2,
Susan Walker3 and Matthew C. Fisher3
1Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biologı´a Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales,
CSIC, Jose´ Gutie´rrez Abascal, 2 28006 Madrid, Spain
2Departamento de Fisica y Matema´ tica, Universidad Europea de Madrid, 28670 Villaviciosa de Odo´n, Madrid, Spain
3Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, St Mary’s Campus,
Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK

*Abstract:*
Amphibian species are declining at an alarming rate on a global scale in large part owing to an infectious
disease caused by the chytridiomycete fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. This disease of amphibians
has recently emerged within Europe, but knowledge of its effects on amphibian assemblages remains poor.
Importantly, little is known about the environmental envelope that is associated with chytridiomycosis in
Europe and the potential for climate change to drive future disease dynamics. Here, we use long-term
observations on amphibian population dynamics in the Pen˜ alara Natural Park, Spain, to investigate the
link between climate change and chytridiomycosis. Our analysis shows a significant association between
change in local climatic variables and the occurrence of chytridiomycosis within this region. Specifically,
we show that rising temperature is linked to the occurrence of chytrid-related disease, consistent with the
chytrid-thermal-optimum hypothesis. We show that these local variables are driven by general circulation
patterns, principally the North Atlantic Oscillation. Given that B. dendrobatidis is known to be broadly
distributed across Europe, there is now an urgent need to assess the generality of our finding and
determine whether climate-driven epidemics may be expected to impact on amphibian species across the
wider region.
Keywords: climate-change; chytridiomycosis; Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis; amphibian declines;
epidemiology


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