Anthropogenic change and disease susceptibility in poison frogs: identifying links with diet, skin alkaloids, and the microbiome

Anthropogenic disturbance, coupled with climate change, is a leading cause of biodiversity loss. In Ecuador, approximately 97% of the Chocó biodiversity hotspot is now deforested, underscoring the need to understand and predict species' responses to Anthropogenic change. This project will interrogate behavioural and microbial responses in the diablito poison frog, Oophaga sylvatica as a test case to assess how species respond to disturbance and climate change.

The composition of microbiomes can change rapidly across environments, and microbiomes can play an important role in disease resistance in their host species. Understanding links between environmental change and the microbiome is therefore an important step in understanding disease susceptibility under Anthropogenic change. Oophaga sylvatica is an ideal model to test links between Anthropogenic change, behaviour, and the microbiome on susceptibility to the fungal skin pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd): O. sylvatica sequester toxic alkaloids from arthropod prey and their skin alkaloids can display microbial inhibitory activity in vitro. Oophaga sylvatica's diet and skin alkaloid profile have also been shown to be impacted by anthropogenic change. We hypothesise that variation in diet and skin alkaloids is driven by microhabitat choice, and that microbiome composition will have knock-on effects on susceptibility to Bd.