DHL graduate student Braden DeWeerd was just awarded funding through the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Award, through the American Museum of Natural History! These funds will allow Braden to screen his anuran samples from his summer fieldwork for the presence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a fungal pathogen that has received little attention across the region. Not only is there a pathogen surveillance component of his research, but he will also use these results to examine how land use and habitat characteristics influence infection and pathogen load. The results from this study support efforts to understand the threats to imperiled frogs along the Pecos River, such that Bd information can be integrated into conservation and management frameworks.

Congratulations Braden!