Environmental watering elevates chytrid infection probability in frogs

Climate change is bringing severe drought to many regions, increasing the threat to amphibians. But we could help them, right? We could bring in water to ensure wetlands stay wet until metamorphosis, and refuges stay moist during the dry season. We experimentally added water to artificial refuges used by the endangered Bibron's toadlet (Pseudophryne bibroni) in SE Australia to see if we could increase survival. But this came with the risk that adding moisture might also increase chytridiomycosis. Our study, devised during a prolonged drought, was implemented during normal and high rainfall years. We found that adding water to refuges in these conditions reduced survival, and increased chytrid infection. Chytrid infection was associated with lower survival and reduced body condition, and was worse in the wetter year. Lesson? Measure survival when watering because the trade-offs with chytrid can mean you are better off to leave frogs out to dry.