Amadeus Plewnia

Trier University · Department of Biogeography

The fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) is one of two species (the other, B. dendrobatidis/Bd) that cause amphibian chytridiomycosis, an emerging infectious disease that has been indicated in the declines of hundreds of amphibian species worldwide. While Bd has been near globally distributed for decades, Bsal is a more recently...

1. DNA metabarcoding has revolutionized our ability to monitor ecosystems. However, the method is still rarely used in developing countries where resources are limited and fieldwork is challenging. 2. To overcome this, we designed a comprehensive workflow allowing rapid community metabarcoding with minimum, self-manufacturable equipment in the fiel...

For nearly four decades, harlequin toads, genus Atelopus, have suffered unparalleled population declines. While this also results in limited understanding of alphataxonomic relationships, these toads face an urgent need for advances in systematics to inform conservation efforts. However, high intraspecific variation and cryptic diversity have hinde...

Amphibians globally suffer from emerging infectious diseases like chytridiomycosis caused by the continuously spreading chytrid fungi. One is Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) and its disease ‒ the ‘salamander plague’ ‒ which is lethal to several caudate taxa. Recently introduced into Western Europe, long distance dispersal of Bsal, likely t...

The Salamander plague: Characterization, current situation in Germany, recommendations for action The pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), one of the two amphibian chytrid fungi and the cause of the salamander plague, was introduced to Europe from Asia. Currently , Bsal outbreaks are known in the wild from > 130 sites in Belgium, Ge...

The harlequin toads (Bufonidae, Atelopus) from the Cordillera Occidental of Colombia are poorly understood, with several species being known only from few specimens and a single locality. Material from the Yotoco area, Departa-mento Valle del Cauca, has been addressed in previous studies and was allocated ambiguously to different available names. W...

Hidden colors are a widespread phenomenon in the animal kingdom, particularly in an-urans. In some cases, hidden colors are suddenly exposed during defensive displays to startle predators, others seemingly remain hidden-particularly from researchers. Amazonian species of Neotropical harlequin toads (genus Atelopus) show striking and consistent vent...

The fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) is one of two species (the other, B. dendrobatidis/Bd) that cause amphibian chytridiomycosis, an emerging infectious disease that has been indicated in the declines of hundreds of amphibian species worldwide. While Bd has been near-globally distributed for well over a century, Bsal is a m...

ARTICLE Ongoing harlequin toad declines suggest the amphibian extinction crisis is still an emergency Biodiversity loss is extreme in amphibians. Despite ongoing conservation action, it is difficult to determine where we stand in overcoming their extinction crisis. Among the most threatened amphibians are the 131 Neotropical harlequin toads. Many o...

We re-evaluate the taxonomic status of specimens of Rhinella collected from rainforests on the eastern Andean slopes and foothills of central Bolivia. The respective populations have been allocated to different nominal taxa, namely Rhinella fissipes and R. leptoscelis, in the past. By detailed morphological comparisons, including the type specimens...

Supplementary Table S1: Species, GenBank accession numbers, voucher specimens, and locality information for 16S rRNA sequences used in the genetic analysis.

For at least two decades, European amphibians have been affected by the 'salamander plague', an emerging infectious disease caused by the invasive chytrid skin fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) that originated from Asia. Resulting dramatic declines are well known from the European Fire Salamander, while the impact of Bsal on other Eur...

Anthropogenic biodiversity loss is extreme in amphibians. Despite ongoing conservation action, it is difficult to determine where we stand in overcoming their extinction crisis 1,2. Extinction risk is not equally distributed across amphibians 3-5. Among the most threatened amphibians are the 131 Neotropical harlequin toads (Atelopus), many of which...

We have added two new records (in Ecuador and Peru) and maximun altitude of the glass frog "Hyalinobatrachium iaspidiense"

Skin fungi are among the most dangerous drivers of global amphibian declines, and few mitigation strategies are known. For Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Chytridiomycota), available treatments rely on temperature, partially combined with antifungal drugs. We report the clearance of B. salamandrivorans in 2 urodelan species using a solely drug-b...

With the further expansion of the invasive amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) in recent years, the nearest known infected populations to Luxembourg are located at approximately 15 km from the border with Germany and 30 km from the border with Belgium. As Luxembourg still is considered untouched by Bsal and the expansi...

This poster contains the logical framewokr of a project to work on the Atelopus of Western Cordillera in Colombia using as a source of information, museum specimens, morphology, h-DNA, etc.