Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 170513397

Ecology and disease surveillance in frogs of Papua New Guinea

Emerging infectious diseases have played a large role in the global decline of frogs. New Guinea remains the largest stronghold of frog diversity protected from chytrid pathogens, and hosts approximately 6% of the world's frogs. We will undertake a monitoring regime for pathogens to determine the extent of disease in Papua New Guinea and to provide solid baseline data for future emergence. Further, we will measure the baseline frog community demographics along transects to provide ecological data on abundance, habitat and community composition. Declines in frog communities caused by disease in some other places (e.g. Australia) have been difficult to comprehensively document because predecline data was scare. We will use this opportunity to collect DNA of frogs prior to decline, and to establish the level of natural annual variability in population size of individual species within these communities. These data will enable us to identify species that may be rare and threatened and to collect valuable data before disease causes declines.