Reed Scott

Reed Scott

PhD Candidate at the University of Vermont studying disease ecology.

Blog posts

2023

Diary of a Graduate Student

4 minute read

Published:

What does it mean to be a graduate student anyway? This is a big question, and one I should be well poised to answer (I’m in my 6th cumulative year of graduate school). Generally, graduate school refers to anyone pursuing a Master’s of Doctoral degree; Med school and Law school for example are kind of their own thing. An additional and important distinction is that graduate degrees are typically either thesis or non-thesis degrees. A thesis degree typically includes, well, a thesis: that means that the capstone to your degree is some sort of research thesis that typically will end up published as a paper(s) in an academic journal. A non-thesis degree will typically consist of just taking classes, with the potential for some sort of large final exam(s) at the end of the degree. I’ll be focusing mostly on thesis degrees in this post, as that’s what I know because both my degrees are thesis degrees.

Ranavirus

6 minute read

Published:

Globally, amphibians are currently facing massive declines and extinctions as a results of human activity(Carey et al. 1999; Daszak et al. 1999; Campbell Grant et al. 2020). While there are a number of factors involved, including the classics such as climate change and habitat loss, amphibians have also suffered losses as a result of emerging infectious diseases (Daszak et al. 1999, 2001; Greer and Collins 2008). An emerging infectious disease is defined as “a disease caused by a pathogen that is currently increasing in geographical range, is infecting an increased diversity of hosts, and/or has recently evolved”(Daszak 2000; Duffus et al. 2008). Here, we focus on an EID among amphibians: ranavirus. While ranaviruses have not received nearly as much attention as other amphibian disease (see my discussion of the amphibian chytrid fungus), it is in fact an EID that has been the cause of mass mortality events among amphibians in North America, Europe, South America as well as fish populations in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia(Cunningham et al. 1996; Bollinger et al. 1999; Gray and Chinchar 2015a). Here, I provide a brief outline of ranaviruses by describing their taxonomy, pathology and symptoms, as well as steps that could be taken to prevent or control the spread of ranaviruses.

The Amphibian Chytrid fungus

15 minute read

Published:

Chytridiomycosis is a skin disease currently devastating amphibians worldwide. The fungus that causes the disease, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (BD), operates by infecting keratinized cells of the amphibian epidermis (skin)(Ouellet et al. 2005). The disease was first described in 1998 in amphibian populations in Australia and South America(Berger et al. 1998). Since then, the disease has been reported on every continent except Antarctica and is estimated to have played a part in the decline of at least 500 species and the presumed extinction of 90 species(Scheele et al. 2019). Chytridiomycosis is arguable the greatest threat to biodiversity caused by a pathogen, and as such has warranted in-depth research and intense conservation efforts. Here, I will briefly describe the history, biology, and ecology of chytrid, and current conservation efforts to combat its spread.