Cooperative Ecosytem Studies Unit, Rocky Mountain CESU

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The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research into questions of major interest to the conservation of a state-endangered amphibian (the boreal toad, Anaxyrus boreas) that will have spill-over application to anuran conservation. The questions are aimed at 1) determining demographic rates for particular life stages and 2) Comparing vital rates for populations that are at different stages of interaction with the pathogenic amphibian chytrid fungus. The boreal toad is currently listed as an endangered species in the State of Colorado and is being considered for listing by the USFWS (decision slated for fall 2017). It is one of four extant amphibians native to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). Amphibian surveys and park records collected since 1915 document a significant decline in the number of boreal toad breeding sites in the last 30 years. During the past 15 years, breeding has been documented at only six sites within the park and in 2016 breeding only occurred in four of these remaining sites. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a fungal pathogen which causes a fatal skin disease in amphibians (Berger et al. 1998), has been credited as the cause of the recent and rapid declines of boreal toads in RMNP (Muths et al. 2003) and the Southern Rocky Mountain region. Of the remaining breeding sites in RMNP, three are positive for Bd. This funding opportunity is targeted at gathering information about a lifestage where information is critically lacking. Juvenile amphibians typically ⿿vanish⿝ into the environment before they recruit into the breeding population and are observed at breeding sites. Thus, it is difficult to determine the efficacy of reintroduction efforts, to mitigate for disease, or habitat insufficiencies that may be affecting this lifestage and hampering recovery efforts.

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