FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Chytridiomycosis, also known as "chytrid," has contributed to the extinction of at least 90 species of amphibians, and dwindled the population of another 500, but researchers at the University of Arkansas (U of A) in Fayetteville might have found a way to combat the fungal disease by turning up the heat.
According to the U of A, frog saunas, described as "large, sun-heated brick structures with cubby holes" have shown promise in combating chytrid by offering frogs a warm spot to soak in the heat and fight off the infection.
The U of A carried out multiple experiments, both in and out of a lab, where frogs were offered a comfortable area with no incentive to bait them into the heated cubbies, "but they took to the saunas like Finns in winter."
A scientific paper, written in part by U of A biological sciences researcher Erin Sauer, was published in Nature, and covered by The New York Times, The Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, Science, and Popular Sciences.
Saure's prior 2018 research into how heat impacts resistance to chytrid reportedly inspired the paper, which was co-written by 13 other international scientists.
“Anthony Waddle, the lead author on the Nature paper, got in touch with me because he wanted to build my thermal gradients in Australia and replicate my study with green and golden bell frogs,” Sauer explained. “So, I helped him design his setup and experiment in 2020-2021 and then helped with the data analysis for the lab study.
“Very similar to my 2018 study, we found that the green and golden bell frogs preferred warm temperatures and were able to better resist their chytrid infections at those warm temperatures. Anthony and his colleagues in Australia then applied the findings from the lab experiment to build the frog saunas."
However, the experiments also found that cold-adapted species did not benefit from the saunas like their warm counterparts, and in fact, they actually have worse outcomes at warm temperatures according to Sauer. "So, unfortunately, the frog saunas won't work for all species but work beautifully for the warm-preferring frogs."
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