![]() In response to the unprecedented bat and frog population declines, a cross-disciplinary team of epidemiologists, ecologists, and plant pathologists got together a few years ago to determine whether a quantifiable upward trend in deadly fungal diseases is, in fact, occurring, or if we’re simply paying more attention to fungi as a result of a handful of high-profile cases. This pathogen affects more than 500 amphibian species across six continents, and scientists have called chytridiomycosis, the disease it causes, “ the worst infectious disease ever recorded among vertebrates in terms of the number of species impacted, and its propensity to drive them to extinction.” Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, known as Bd or frog chytrid, is probably the most well-known fatal fungus. ![]() In March, the fungus at fault showed up in Washington for the first time this means its reach somehow managed to jump 1,300 miles. Take white-nose syndrome: Since it was first reported in New York State in 2006, the disease has killed more than six million bats across twenty-nine states and five Canadian provinces. Recently, scourges of sinister spores have been going on killing sprees, spreading quickly and wiping out local populations. Lethal fungi have always been around, but their impact appears to be growing. But they share at least one common-and deadly-denominator: Fungal diseases have recently decimated their numbers. ![]() ![]() They hail from vastly different taxa ditto for ecosystems. What do the northern water snake, little brown bat, fire salamander, whitebark pine, and Panamanian golden frog have in common? Not much, it would seem. ![]()
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