ArticleOecologia2015
Evidence of a salt refuge: chytrid infection loads are suppressed in hosts exposed to salt.
Article in Oecologia, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impacts of water quality on the amphibian chytrid fungal pathogen: A systematic review.Environmental microbiology reports · 2024Pooled it
- The Refugial Squeeze: A Globally Relevant Mechanism of Species Decline Revealed by a Threatened Amphibian.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Dynamic stressor regimes drive shifts in biofilm-associated parasites.Parasitology research · 2026Article
- Article
- Thermal mismatch models derived from occurrence data predict pathogen prevalence in frogs.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- In Vitro Infection Model Using A6 Cells Sets the Stage for Host-Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Lake water chemistry and population of origin interact to shape fecundity and growth inEcology and evolution · 2023Article
- Complex Organisms Must Deal with Complex Threats: How Does Amphibian Conservation Deal with Biphasic Life Cycles?Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Review
- Major Emerging Fungal Diseases of Reptiles and Amphibians.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- The effect of salt dosing for chytrid mitigation on tadpoles of a threatened frog, Litoria aurea.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2023Article
- Age structure of amphibian populations with endemic chytridiomycosis, across climatic regions with markedly different infection risk.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- From the Field to the Lab: Physiological and Behavioural Consequences of Environmental Salinity in a Coastal Frog.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Article
- Isolation and Characterization ofApplied and environmental microbiology · 2021Article
- Article
- Physiological Response ofAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2020Article
- Salinity stress increases the severity of ranavirus epidemics in amphibian populations.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Characteristics of monolayer formationBiofilm · 2019Article
- Fitter frogs from polluted ponds: The complex impacts of human-altered environments.Evolutionary applications · 2019Article
- Comparative Analysis of Anuran Amphibian Skin Microbiomes Across Inland and Coastal Wetlands.Microbial ecology · 2019Article
- Seasonal migrations, body temperature fluctuations, and infection dynamics in adult amphibians.PeerJ · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
With the incidence of emerging infectious diseases on the rise, it is becoming increasingly important to identify refuge areas that protect hosts from pathogens and therefore prevent population declines. For the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, temperature and humidity refuge areas for amphibian hosts exist but are difficult to manipulate. Other environmental features that may affect the outcome of infection include water quality, drying regimes, abundance of alternate hosts and isolation from other hosts. We identified relationships between water bodies with these features and infection levels in the free-living hosts inhabiting them. Where significant relationships were identified, we used a series of controlled experiments to test for causation. Infection loads were negatively correlated with the salt concentration of the aquatic habitat and the degree of water level fluctuation and positively correlated with fish abundance. However, only the relationship with salt was confirmed experimentally. Free-living hosts inhabiting water bodies with mean salinities of up to 3.5 ppt had lower infection loads than those exposed to less salt. The experiment confirmed that exposure to sodium chloride concentrations >2 ppt significantly reduced host infection loads compared to no exposure (0 ppt). These results suggest that the exposure of amphibians to salt concentrations found naturally in lentic habitats may be responsible for the persistence of some susceptible species in the presence of B. dendrobatidis. By manipulating the salinity of water bodies, it may be possible to create refuges for declining amphibians, thus allowing them to be reintroduced to their former ranges.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.