{"id":2023492,"date":"2019-04-02T09:35:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T13:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/?p=2023492"},"modified":"2019-04-02T09:35:33","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T13:35:33","slug":"invasive-fungus-amphibians-chytridiomycosis-2023492-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/invasive-fungus-amphibians-chytridiomycosis-2023492-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Killer fungus is wiping out world’s amphibians"},"content":{"rendered":"
An invasive fungus has led to one of the greatest documented losses of vertebrate biodiversity, according to a new global analysis.<\/p>\n
In the 1970s, frogs in remote regions of Australia and Central America began to suddenly disappear.<\/p>\n
Researchers investigated whether climate change, UV radiation, or pollution caused the disappearance, but they didn’t find a clear explanation until a small team in northern Queensland realized the population declines resembled the pattern of an extraordinary disease outbreak.<\/p>\n
In 1998, after combining disease outbreak approaches from human medical science with ecology and veterinary medicine, Lee Berger discovered chytridiomycosis, a previously unknown disease parasitic fungi cause that invades the skin of amphibians.<\/p>\nLitoria serrata<\/em> (the Green-eyed Treefrog) from the Queensland rainforest has declined due to chytridiomycosis. (Picture: Lee Skerratt\/U. Melbourne)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n