2016 AAAS Annual Meeting (February 11-15, 2016)

February 10 - 15, 2016

Advancing Knowledge of Global Amphibian Decline with International Collaboration

The global amphibian crisis has long been a case study on the importance of international collaborations. By its very nature, studying a pandemic involves expertise from many disciplines, and potential solutions require cooperation from many countries. In the last few years, several major breakthroughs from the lab and the field have significantly changed the research questions, conservation activities, and communication efforts related to the worldwide pandemic of chytridiomycosis (i.e., infectious disease of amphibians) and the resulting global amphibian crisis. New techniques and field data have revealed great diversity of the pathogen and complexity in amphibian responses. Consequently, researchers are changing the types of questions asked, their approach to studying the questions, and where they conduct their research. These new findings have also influenced the forms and types of engagement with other stakeholder groups, such as the media, policymakers, citizens, and student groups. This symposium discusses novel research emerging from international collaborations, showing how these data are being used in classrooms, in the community, and in discussions with policymakers. Speakers highlight what has been learned, examine where the science is heading, and discuss where the next scientific advances are needed, with an emphasis on new research challenges in a global engagement context.