Informing the Ecology and Conservation of Amphibians Imperiled by Chytridiomycosis

摘要: This dissertation provides valuable information to researchers and managers studying disease-related declines of amphibians at local, regional, and global scales. I have brought attention to a common sampling framework in these systems that limits inferences about the distribution and dynamics of Bd, validated a new sampling technology that will allow for improved estimation, and implemented a landscape-level field study using this technology that provides our first estimates of Bd distribution and persistence independent of amphibian populations. I also used a historic dataset to evaluate competing drivers of extinction risk for boreal toads and to identify potential elevational refuges for this species of concern. My findings provide some of the most complete estimates of amphibian-Bd dynamics in a temperate North American system, and are being used by the partners of the Boreal Toad Recovery Team as they …