Understanding Environmental Factors that Protect Frogs from Infectious Disease

SUMMARY: Researchers will identify what environmental factors are allowing the endangered growling grass frog to persist near quarries after severe declines in their natural habitats and waterbodies in hopes of saving the species.

THE PROBLEM: The endangered growling grass frog is declining in its natural grassland habitat and waterbodies but persisting and thriving in artificial sites like decommissioned mining quarries. Researchers are unsure why this species is flourishing in these artificial sites and want to know if factors like high salinity and higher temperatures are reducing the impacts of the devastating fungal disease (chytridiomycosis) that is responsible for massive amphibian declines around the world, including the growling grass frog and closely related species. Researchers hope a better understanding of how these frogs can thrive in unnatural waterbodies will inform conservation strategies to help save this and other frog species impacted by deadly fungal disease.

THE PROJECT: To better understand how growling grass frog populations thrive in manufactured habitats, researchers will conduct a field study of fungal disease and environmental/water quality parameters. The team will conduct laboratory analyses using samples collected from the field to explore how specific water quality parameters directly affect the fungal pathogen and frog eggs. These studies will help researchers understand if disease and breeding success are directly impacted by what’s happening in these artificial habitats.

POTENTIAL IMPACT: This project impacts conservation and will inform on-the-ground management decisions. The sites within the mining operations are earmarked to be used as landfill sites in the next decade; therefore, the frogs cannot remain at these mining quarries. However, because researchers manufacture these sites, they hope to recreate the conditions found at them in other suitable locations. Following the completion of this project, researchers will use the outcomes to direct the development of sites for translocation and release of frogs when the mining quarries are closed, giving these frogs a permanent home.

This project will also develop partnerships between researchers, managers, industry and the community. These integrated and established partnerships will help build capacity to save frogs and maybe other species while maintaining industry capacity. Researchers hope to use this unique collaborative project to combine scientific research with conservation management, industry and the community to ensure eco-friendly development processes that save threatened species.