I have been joining surveys for threatened California red-legged frogs at our reintroduction sites in southern California and in Baja Mexico and we are successfully detecting adults and metamorphs. These surveys are critical to be able to quantify population sizes and adult survival to gauge how our project is going. 

The last paper from my dissertation is In Press in EcoHealth! This experimental exposure study documented lower weekly survival probabilities for metamorph Boreal toads (Anaxyrus boreas boreas) when exposed to Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) strains that had been managed in culture, versus a fresh isolate. Our findings provide further evidence for virulence attenuation in Bd when passed in culture, and emphasize the importance of reporting pathogen maintenance conditions in publications to aid in the inference gained from experimental results.   

We have been receiving some great media attention for our team's California red-legged frog bi-national conservation work. Particularly about our documentation of the first wild eggmass found in translocated populations in southern California, and how we have been implementing automated recording devices to monitor for breeding activity and detect invasive American bullfrogs using AI. It was great speaking with NPR on All Things Considered about our success! You can also find a slightly longer-form 14min podcast episode on NPR's Short Wave! 

I tabled at the Museum for World Frog Day to spread the word about these special amphibians to museum guests! Everyone loved our Goliath frog  (Conraua goliath) specimen, the largest living frog in the world. 

I helped our conservation team members from USGS, The Nature Conservancy, US Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Fauna de Noroeste translocate California red-legged frog eggmasses from Baja California, Mexico to a restoration site in San Diego County, California. These eggs will hatch into tadpoles and we will monitor their transition to adults for several years. 

Our paper on quantifying host tolerance and resistance to pathogens is finally out in a special issue of Animal Ecology focused on understanding intraspecific variation. This work will inform decisions about translocations of Boreal toads in Colorado and Wyoming where they have severely declined. We are continuing to work in this space with collaborators to further improve predictions about intraspecific susceptibility to Bd in this species. 

Our first trip to Baja, Mexico to survey for California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) eggmasses was a success with documenting the first eggmass of the season! Our team from the San Diego Natural History Museum will be back almost weekly to continue surveys in conjunction with biologists from Mexican non-profit Fauna del Noroeste (Fauno), in our efforts to translocate a portion of eggs across the border to several reintroduced populations in southern California. The fieldwork begins!

Our paper on expanding the One Health concept to include herpetofauna species was finally published! This paper stemmed from a workshop hosted at the 1st Global Amphibian and Reptile Disease meeting. It was great to work collaboratively with the workshop leaders and participants on this to call for more attention to the importance of amphibians and reptiles in a One Health framework. 

I am transitioning to a new position at the San Diego Natural History Museum working in the Herpetology Department for the next three years helping to conserve and recover California red-legged frog populations throughout southern California and Baja Mexico with a wonderful team of partners! I will miss my Chapman lab and I am very grateful for the time spent there. On to San Diego!

Back from Malaysian Borneo for the 10th World Congress of Herpetology! What an awesome time learning, eating, and wildlife spotting across the island with old and new friends. Check out my gallery for photos of the amazing wildlife encountered! 

I had a great time attending the Rocky Mountain National Park Biennial Research Conference hosted by the Rocky Mountain Conservancy. I shared results from our work on boreal toad resistance and tolerance and our research's implications for conservation and management of the species in the Park and beyond. Thank you to all the members of the public, government, academia, and non-profit who were interested in our research! 

Several from the Lopes lab attended the SICB meeting in Seattle this week. We had a wonderful time presenting our research (great job undergrad Madeleine!), interacting with the diverse array of scientists, catching up with old friends, meeting new people, and getting re-invigorated for all the research ahead this year!

Our first large experiment at Chapman University has come to a close. We have begun processing multiple sample types, and have sent out extractions for RNAseq. We could not have pulled off this experiment without the work from our amazing undergraduate researchers! Early next semester we are starting round 2, stay tuned!

Our paper led by Daryl Trumbo and I on the conservation and landscape genomics of boreal toads in Colorado was accepted in Molecular Ecology! This study provides vital information on connectivity and genomic structure of remaining boreal toad populations and aid wildlife managers with conservation decisions about translocations, captive breeding, and reintroductions. So happy to have the paper cross the finish line. Check it out here.

After weeks of preparation, we started our first of a series of experiments today in hopes of better understanding how uninfected individuals perceive disease risk from infected conspecifics. Our aim is to determine how the anticipation of becoming infected changes individual behavior, physiology, and immunology.

Absolutely thrilled to announce that I have accepted a position as a Postdoctoral Researcher with Dr. Patricia Lopes' lab at Chapman University in Orange, California! We'll be investigating the effects of disease on the physiology and behavior of both infected and uninfected hosts through the lens of 'disease risk'. I am excited to gain expertise in eco-physiology, eco-immunology, and animal behavior techniques and grow my training as an undergraduate mentor in Dr. Lopes' undergraduate-led research program! I'm also looking forward to being 'home' for awhile and exploring the natural, cultural, and gastronomic diversity of the Southland!

I am #PhDone !!! Within several days I passed my PhD private defense and was hooded at commencement. I am very excited for whats next...more details soon.

I gave my PhD Exit Seminar talk to friends, family, mentors, collaborators, and colleagues! You can watch a recording of the seminar here.

My Leadership Fellow cohort finished our last workshop for the fellowship and learned more about how science is used in federal policy and how scientists can communicate with policymakers.

I updated a variety of academic, agency, and private stakeholders on our research at the Boreal Toad Conservation Team meeting in Colorado Springs. Great discussions on moving boreal toad conservation forward!

I presented my research on boreal toad tolerance to disease and was voted the 1st Place Graduate Student Oral Presentation at the Front Range Student Ecological Symposium held at Colorado State University! It's always great seeing students from around the Front Range present their work.

As part of my Sustainability Leadership Fellowship, I participated in a 2-day science communication workshop by The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. I had a great time learning how to craft my story and implement improv techniques to improve my communication!

My first dissertation chapter was accepted in the Journal of Applied Ecology! 'Compensatory recruitment unlikely in high elevation amphibian populations challenged by disease'. Check out our open access article here!

I presented at The Wildlife Society's Annual Conference in Spokane, WA! I had a great time seeing old friends and learning about the latest and greatest in the wildlife sciences. 

I participated in releasing boreal toad (Anaxyrus boreas boreas) tadpoles at a reintroduction site in Rocky Mountain National Park. These reintroductions ensure that boreal toads, a state-endangered species in Colorado, remain on the landscape as managers work towards long-term solutions. Check out some photos here!

I virtually presented my PhD research at the inaugural Global Amphibian and Reptile Disease Conference. It was a great two days of talks from researchers from around the world on the latest breakthroughs and applications for herpetological diseases.

I was selected as a CSU School of Global Environmental Sustainability (SoGES) 2022 Leadership Fellow! I'm excited to grow my science communication and leadership skills with the training and workshops afforded by this program. 

I spent a week visiting the lab of Dr. Jake Kerby at the University of South Dakota to run >30 qPCRs from samples taken during my infection experiment last fall. Thanks Jake and the Kerby Lab for hosting, I had as much fun as possible for a week of 10hr lab days!

I was selected as the 2022 Rocky Mountain National Park Bailey Fellowship winner for my PhD work on the conservation of boreal toads! This will be an amazing partnership with the National Park Service and the Rocky Mountain Conservancy to bring my work directly to managers on the ground, and amplify our research to multiple stakeholders.

Our Research Highlight for Journal of Animal Ecology is out! We discuss the importance of recognizing the context-dependent nature of host population persistence in the face of disease, and highlight the work of Valenzuela-Sanchez et al.!

My Master's research is now published in Animal Conservation! I used a conservation genomic approach to determine connectivity and genetic diversity among 15 Cascades frog populations across northern California and Oregon to help inform conservation decisions such as translocation. My work is being used to also assess the frog's listing status under the California Endangered Species Act. A great day to finally have this paper out! 

My experimental chapter untangling boreal toad disease tolerance and resistance is underway!

Rockstar undergrad Lindsey just published her first paper on the effects of PIT tagging versus photographic ID for amphibian marking in Ecological Indicators. Her work shows that PIT tagging is worth the investment for longer term studies and saves time over photographing and processing photos. We also built a ShinyApp for researches to use to help them determine which method is best for them based on the life history of their species.