TY - JOUR
T1 - Introduced bullfrogs are associated with increased Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis prevalence and reduced occurrence of Korean treefrogs
AU - Borzée, Amaël
AU - Kosch, Tiffany A.
AU - Kim, Miyeon
AU - Jang, Yikweon
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by a grant from The Biodiversity Foundation and a grant from the Rotary Club Lectoure-Fleurance to AB and by a National Research Foundation of Korea grant (2015R1A4A1041997) and a Rural Development Administration grant (PJ012285) to YJ. The observations in this study comply with the current laws of the Republic of Korea.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Borzée et al.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2017/5
Y1 - 2017/5
N2 - Bullfrogs, Lithobates catesbeianus, have been described as major vectors of the amphibian chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Bd is widespread throughout the range of amphibians yet varies considerably within and among populations in prevalence and host impact. In our study, the presence of L. catesbeianus is correlated with a 2.5 increase in Bd prevalence in treefrogs, and the endangered Dryophytes suweonensis displays a significantly higher Bd prevalence than the more abundant D. japonicus for the 37 sites surveyed. In addition, the occurrence of L. catesbeianus was significantly correlated with a decrease in presence of D. suweonensis at sites. We could not determine if it is the presence of bullfrogs as competitors or predators that is limiting the distribution of D. suweonensis or whether this is caused by bullfrogs acting as a reservoir for Bd. However, L. catesbeianus can now be added to the list of factors responsible for the decline of D. suweonensis populations.
AB - Bullfrogs, Lithobates catesbeianus, have been described as major vectors of the amphibian chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Bd is widespread throughout the range of amphibians yet varies considerably within and among populations in prevalence and host impact. In our study, the presence of L. catesbeianus is correlated with a 2.5 increase in Bd prevalence in treefrogs, and the endangered Dryophytes suweonensis displays a significantly higher Bd prevalence than the more abundant D. japonicus for the 37 sites surveyed. In addition, the occurrence of L. catesbeianus was significantly correlated with a decrease in presence of D. suweonensis at sites. We could not determine if it is the presence of bullfrogs as competitors or predators that is limiting the distribution of D. suweonensis or whether this is caused by bullfrogs acting as a reservoir for Bd. However, L. catesbeianus can now be added to the list of factors responsible for the decline of D. suweonensis populations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85019999154&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0177860
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0177860
M3 - Article
C2 - 28562628
AN - SCOPUS:85019999154
VL - 12
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 5
M1 - e0177860
ER -