, showed that the pathogen amphibian Perkinsea infected a third of frogs sampled, and its presence was associated with the cooler, wetter conditions typical of a Florida winter.
"We have this pathogen that we basically know nothing about, and this is the first real stab at trying to understand where it's showing up and why," says Matthew Atkinson, a lecturer in UCF's Department of Biology and the study's lead author—which he completed during his time as a doctoral student in the same department."And we can't do anything for protecting species unless we know what's actually happening in the first place.