Ms Emily Hotham1, Mr Thomas Parkin1, Mr Timothy Cutajar1,2, Dr Jodi Rowley1,2
1Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia, 2University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Biography:
Emily Hotham is a New Zealand conservation biologist, specializing in herpetofauna. She completed her master’s at Massey University, investigating the abundance and habitat use of Archey's Frogs in relation to land-use on the Coromandel. In 2022, she moved to Australia to work as a Researcher at the Australian Museum in Sydney. Her work primarily focuses on threatened frog species and the various methods we can use to detect and rediscover populations.
Abstract:
Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate class worldwide, with 40.7% of species Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable. The New England Tablelands of northern New South Wales, Australia, has experienced dramatic changes in frog species composition in the last 50 years. Likely causes include the amphibian chytrid fungus and land-use modification. Until recently, the Booroolong Frog (Litoria booroolongensis) had been missing from this region, not detected for over 40 years. However, an isolated population was rediscovered in recent years, and understanding the true extent of this population is an urgent priority. Environmental DNA could be an effective tool for Booroolong Frog detection, but this population co-occurs with the closely related Stony Creek Frog (Litoria wilcoxii), and the two species are known to hybridise, thereby complicating the interpretation of eDNA results. We developed a single-species assay and tested it alongside traditional survey methodologies. We assessed the efficacy of eDNA surveys in detecting Booroolong Frogs without false positives from Stony Creek Frogs and discuss the implications of hybrids for eDNA surveys.