Population losses and extinctions of species are occurring at unprecedented rates, as exemplified by declines and extinctions of amphibians worldwide. However, studies of amphibian population declines generally do not address the complexity of the phenomenon or its implications for ecological communities, focusing instead on single factors affecting particular amphibian species. We argue that t...

The fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has caused the greatest known wildlife pandemic, infecting over 500 amphibian species. It remains unclear why some host species decline from disease-related mortality whereas others persist. We introduce a conceptual model that predicts that infection risk in ectotherms will decrease as the difference between host and pathogen environmenta...

Amphibians have communicable and non-communicable diseases. The following pages provide information on some of these diseases. Chytridiomycosis, Ranaviruses, and mucormycosis are discussed separately. Reviews of diseases are available in: Berger L, Longcore J, Speare R, Hyatt A, Skerratt LF. 2009. Fungal Diseases in Amphibians. In: Amphibian Biology, Volume 8 Amphibian Decline: Disease, Parasit...

In the Funding section, the funder “Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative” is incorrectly referred to as the “Amphibian and Reptile Monitoring Initiative.” The correct funding information is as follows: This work was funded by the 2008 USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative competitive grant program. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decisio...

purposes but conservationists fear it may disturb the birds. They are keen to ramp up their efforts but losing 65 per cent of this year’s chicks has been a major blow, said Ana Isabel Fagundes of Portugal’s national ornithological society, SPEA. Conservationists have reinforced the nests that contain surviving birds to help protect them from the anticipated increased soil erosion as a result of...

The amphibian decline crisis has prompted an extraordinary proliferation of research in various relevant areas, both in the laboratory and in the field. This high level of activity is essential to inform sound conservation action on the ground, and will be most useful if coordinated through an objective, critical and integrative approach to amphibian decline research. We focus on studies surrou...

Considerable progress has been made in understanding the responses of amphibians to climate change, with successful research carried out on climate change-associated shifts in amphibian phenology, elevational distributions and amphibian-parasite interactions. We review and synthesize the literature on this topic, emphasizing acutely lethal, sublethal, indirect and positive effects of climate ch...

Background: Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate pesticide that elicits broad-spectrum insecticidal activity against a number of important arthropod pests. Determining the insecticides’ toxicity to amphibians can give us a better understanding regarding the role of toxicants in amphibian declines. This information would be beneficial to assess their ecological relevance at environmental con...

The amphibian skin contains various bioactive molecules (peptides, proteins, steroids, alkaloids, opiods) that possess potent therapeutic activities like antibacterial, antifungal, antiprotozoal, antidiabetic, antineoplastic, analgesic and sleep inducing properties. Research on amphibian skin derived biomolecules can provide potential clue towards newer drug development to combat various pathop...