Climate change and disease are leading factors contributing to amphibian declines worldwide. Understanding how these factors interact to affect threatened amphibians will be increasingly important to the future management of these species. In the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, the native Cascades frog (Rana cascade) is one of such species experiencing sharp declines.

The Cascades frog is highly susceptible to Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis(Bd), an aquatic fungal pathogen that has been implicated in amphibian declines and extinctions on multiple continents. Climate change and Bdmay have disparate consequences for different life-stages of the Cascades frog, complicating the study of the amphibian-disease-climate change system. Bd thrives in cooler temperatures. Therefore, higher temperatures resulting from climate change could benefit Cascades frogs by reducing rates of infection on post-metamorphic frogs. However, increased pond temperatures and drying associated with climate change may have negative impacts on the early life-stages of this species.

This project will involve a field study that will examine how these conflicting outcomes will ultimately affect populations of the Cascades frog. Understanding this complexity will be valuable for managers when deciding when and how to intervene to help at-risk populations of the Cascades frog.