Abstract:
Over recent decades the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis has been the cause of wide-spread disease in many amphibian populations. This study models the long term effects of the related disease, chytridiomycosis, in a population of Cascades frogs (Rana cascadae). Susceptibility and infectiousness were varied to determine the long-term outcome of the population: 1) extinction of the infected frogs and recovery of the frog population, 2) persistence of both the infected and uninfected populations, 3) extinction of both the infected and uninfected. Both the deterministic and stochastic models showed extinction as the most likely long term outcome.
