An interaction between climate change and infectious disease drove widespread amphibian declines

Cohen, Jeremy M.; Civitello, David J.; Venesky, Matthew D.; McMahon, Taegan A.; Rohr, Jason R.

doi:10.1111/gcb.14489

Cited by 121 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(65 reference statements)

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“…increasing temperatures and more prevalent outbreaks of disease has the potential to place populations closer to the brink of extinction than previously thought (Cohen, Civitello, Venesky, McMahon, & Rohr, 2018).…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

Pathogen exposure disrupts an organism's ability to cope with thermal stress

Hector

Sgrò

Hall

2019

Global Change Biology

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As a result of global climate change, species are experiencing an escalation in the severity and regularity of extreme thermal events. With patterns of disease distribution and transmission predicted to undergo considerable shifts in the coming years, the interplay between temperature and pathogen exposure will likely determine the capacity of a population to persist under the dual threat of global change and infectious disease. In this study, we investigated how exposure to a pathogen affects an individual's ability to cope with extreme temperatures. Using experimental infections of Daphnia magna with its obligate bacterial pathogen Pasteuria ramosa, we measured upper thermal limits of multiple host and pathogen genotype combinations across the dynamic process of infection and under various forms (static and ramping) of thermal stress. We find that pathogens substantially limit the thermal tolerance of their host, with the reduction in upper thermal limits on par with the breadth of variation seen across similar species entire geographical ranges. The precise magnitude of any reduction, however, was specific to the host and pathogen genotype combination. In addition, as thermal ramping rate slowed, upper thermal limits of both healthy and infected individuals were reduced. Our results suggest that the capacity of a population to evolve new thermal limits, when also faced with the threat of infection, will depend not only on a host's genetic variability in warmer environments, but also on the frequency of host and pathogen genotypes. We suggest that pathogen‐induced alterations of host thermal performance should be taken into account when assessing the resilience of any population and its potential for adaptation to global change.

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mentioning

confidence: 96%

Pathogen exposure disrupts an organism's ability to cope with thermal stress

Hector

Sgrò

Hall

2019

Global Change Biology

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“…These results underline the importance of accounting for the effects of local environmental drivers to predict the dynamics of an invading pathogen (Cohen et al, 2018(Cohen et al, , 2017Raffel et al, 2013). These results underline the importance of accounting for the effects of local environmental drivers to predict the dynamics of an invading pathogen (Cohen et al, 2018(Cohen et al, , 2017Raffel et al, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Effects of historic and projected climate change on the range and impacts of an emerging wildlife disease

Price

Leung

Owen³

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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The global trend of increasing environmental temperatures is often predicted to result in more severe disease epidemics. However, unambiguous evidence that temperature is a driver of epidemics is largely lacking, because it is demanding to demonstrate its role among the complex interactions between hosts, pathogens, and their shared environment. Here, we apply a three‐pronged approach to understand the effects of temperature on ranavirus epidemics in UK common frogs, combining in vitro, in vivo, and field studies. Each approach suggests that higher temperatures drive increasing severity of epidemics. In wild populations, ranavirosis incidents were more frequent and more severe at higher temperatures, and their frequency increased through a period of historic warming in the 1990s. Laboratory experiments using cell culture and whole animal models showed that higher temperature increased ranavirus propagation, disease incidence, and mortality rate. These results, combined with climate projections, predict severe ranavirosis outbreaks will occur over wider areas and an extended season, possibly affecting larval recruitment. Since ranaviruses affect a variety of ectothermic hosts (amphibians, reptiles, and fish), wider ecological damage could occur. Our three complementary lines of evidence present a clear case for direct environmental modulation of these epidemics and suggest management options to protect species from disease.

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“…Furthermore, thermal mismatches outperformed other climatic factors predicting sharp declines and several extinctions experienced by the amphibian genus Atelopus in Latin America that are associated with Bd (Cohen et al . in review; Fig. b,c).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…) (Cohen et al . , in review) because smaller organisms generally have broader thermal breadths and acclimate or adapt to new conditions faster than larger organisms (Rohr et al . ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of thermal mismatches on chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis prevalence are moderated by life stage, body size, elevation and latitude

et al. 2019

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Global climate change is increasing the frequency of unpredictable weather conditions; however, it remains unclear how species‐level and geographic factors, including body size and latitude, moderate impacts of unusually warm or cool temperatures on disease. Because larger and lower‐latitude hosts generally have slower acclimation times than smaller and higher‐latitude hosts, we hypothesised that their disease susceptibility increases under ‘thermal mismatches’ or differences between baseline climate and the temperature during surveying for disease. Here, we examined how thermal mismatches interact with body size, life stage, habitat, latitude, elevation, phylogeny and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) conservation status to predict infection prevalence of the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in a global analysis of 32 291 amphibian hosts. As hypothesised, we found that the susceptibility of larger hosts and hosts from lower latitudes to Bd was influenced by thermal mismatches. Furthermore, hosts of conservation concern were more susceptible than others following thermal mismatches, suggesting that thermal mismatches might have contributed to recent amphibian declines.

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An interaction between climate change and infectious disease drove widespread amphibian declines

Cited by 121 publications

References 38 publications

Pathogen exposure disrupts an organism's ability to cope with thermal stress

Pathogen exposure disrupts an organism's ability to cope with thermal stress

Effects of historic and projected climate change on the range and impacts of an emerging wildlife disease

Impacts of thermal mismatches on chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis prevalence are moderated by life stage, body size, elevation and latitude

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