Should probably have been headed “Dumb experiment design and what not to do to frogs”.
Note that frogs acclimated to 25°C suffered more from chytridiomycosis when shifted to incubators 10°C cooler that did frogs accustomed to the lower temperature either through nocturnal/diurnal swings or constantly lower temperatures. That doesn’t mean that changing temperatures are bad for amphibians, only that subjecting them to sudden dramatic change is an additional stressor that reduces their resistance to chytrid fungus.
Perhaps predictably, this crap is coming out in Nature Climate Change, although when I tried to access it they were experiencing technical difficulties. I’ll just have to trust Reuters repeated what they were told.
Parasites look set to become more virulent because of climate change, according to a study showing that frogs suffer more infections from a fungus when exposed to unexpected swings in temperatures.
Parasites, which include tapeworms, the tiny organisms that cause malaria and funguses, may be more nimble at adapting to climatic shifts than the animals they live on since they are smaller and grow more quickly, scientists said.
“Increases in climate variability are likely to make it easier for parasites to infect their hosts,” Thomas Raffel of Oakland University in the United States told Reuters, based on findings about frogs and a sometimes deadly skin fungus.
“We think this could exacerbate the effects of some disease,” he said of the report he led with colleagues at the University of South Florida. It will be published in Monday’s edition of the journal Nature Climate Change.
Add this to the “list”.
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
It appears the parasite in this report feeds on research grants….
Capitalists Beware! Socialists may get nastier with climate swings.
First,they can’t do science. Now, they can’t do English. “Parasites, which include(s) tapeworms, the tiny organisms that cause malaria(,) and fung(i),”. I had to read this three times before I was convinced they weren’t blaming malaria on tiny tapeworms.