Ecology

In April, the United States opened up one million square kilometres of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. Before then, for a decade, the region had been a marine protected area — in which all fishing was prohibited. Courts reclosed the area this August as part of an ongoing legal battle. Other protected areas, including the Papahānaumokuākea, Rose Atoll and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts marine national monuments, are under review (see go.nature.com/44Zambm).
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Safe and snug: frogs kept warm in brick ‘saunas’ are able to ward off a deadly fungal infection.Credit: Anthony WaddleWorking scientist profilesThis article is part of an occasional series in which Nature profiles scientists with unusual career histories or outside interests.On warm, muggy evenings, conservation biologist Anthony Waddle and his students, along with local frog enthusiasts, venture into the wild and wet suburbs of Sydney, Australia, head torches on, searching for green and golden bell frogs (Litoria aurea). Then they frogmarch the captured amphibians into a small greenhouse made from nothing more than a stack of masonry bricks for a “luxury treatment” sauna — which might ultimately save their lives, he explains.For many, the idea of a ‘frog sauna’ might sound bizarre. But when Waddle’s team published a study (A. W. Waddle et al. Nature 631, 344–349; 2024) showing that a simple sit in a warm enclosure could treat the deadly chytrid fungal infection plaguing the green and golden bell frog, it made waves — and resulted in him winning the 2025 Future for Nature award. Now, as a postdoctoral researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney, he’s collaborating with partners, training local communities and helping Australia to save its declining population of these glossy green-and-golden-streaked frogs that fit in your palm and croak with a muffled, motorcycle-like revving sound.Chytrid fungus infections are a huge threat to the global frog population and have contributed to declines in more than 500 frog species and the extinction of more than 90 others.The good news is that infections can be cleared easily in some frogs under the right conditions, because the fungus is sensitive to heat. “Around 28 °C is enough to really limit chytrid growth,” Waddle says. And the sauna treatment can pay off really fast: a few hours a day for a week or less is all that’s needed. Saving one female frog can markedly change the trajectory of a population, because a single adult can produce thousands of offspring in one season.Waddle stacks bricks inside a mini greenhouse, where they function as saunas for frogs.Credit: Saeed Khan/AFP via GettyHow the treatment came about was serendipitous. In 2013, researchers studying tree frogs in Queensland, Australia, noticed a pattern: in areas where chytrid fungus had spread, frog populations survived near large granite boulders and crevices, but disappeared from shaded, forested areas. The researchers hypothesized that the boulders acted as natural refuges that absorbed heat during the day and slowly released it at night. The process created warmer microhabitats that protected the frogs from the fungus.However, not all habitats had these heating boulders. So Waddle and his colleagues wanted to finally “test this idea that people had been hemming and hawing about forever”, but that no one had tested by experiment.Trying a new approach meant there was no standard blueprint. Waddle and his team had to test and adjust various sauna designs as they went. Their simple set-up consists of a small garden-greenhouse frame wrapped with translucent plastic and placed over a stack of masonry bricks, each with a series of openings for frog entry and exit. Their experiments found that the frogs readily find and enter saunas on their own.So far, the researchers have placed about 70 frog saunas in three sites in greater Sydney and plan to use three more sites there in the next Southern Hemisphere winter, in 2026. They have also created how-to guides, educational videos and workshops to teach community members how to build the saunas (see ‘Quick-fire Q&A’). Several greenhouse suppliers have even listed the set-up on their websites as useful for creating frog saunas, as well as for growing plants.Quick-fire Q&AAnthony Waddle with an amphibian friend.Credit: Saeed Khan/AFP via GettyHow do you capture the frogs for the treatment?Capturing frogs is the fun part. You just go out at night with head torches and pick them up. We capture them by hand and bring them into a temperature- and environment-controlled facility. We either give them antifungal baths or increase their temperature for treatment, and then eventually release them. My students and I like capturing frogs the most, but it’s also the start of a lot of work, because the frogs are usually quite ill and need close attention.What has been the main challenge of this project?It’s mostly been about getting people on board with solution-driven research. I’ve worked on chytrid fungal infections for nearly 12 years — starting with an undergraduate project, then a master’s on chytrid and vaccines, a PhD focused on ‘vaccination’ in frog saunas, and now a postdoctoral position investigating synthetic-biology solutions for chytrid resistance.We’re in a position to make a big impact, even with a small team. But sometimes it’s been hard to get the exposure and support we need to grow and to secure major funding — especially when we don’t have the CVs of more-senior researchers to back us up.When someone develops a patent, or something for use during their PhD, it’s the responsibility of that person to make sure that the technology is used. So, I’m adopting an unconventional entrepreneurial spirit, doing citizen-science work, trying to secure partnerships with industry and going out to places where people don’t think to look for funding or support, to drive my research forwards. It’s been the secret to my success.What’s a surprising question that you are asked about your job?People often ask us to justify why we do our work or explain its broader benefit to society. I often retort with: “No one asks an accountant, or someone making money from money, what their greater purpose is.” Yet, someone like me working to conserve frogs is treated as if that’s not a real job. I’m not tired of justifying that what I do is important, because we are saving species from the face of extinction. But I do enjoy making people laugh with that joke, because it’s true.The saunas are a low-cost garden habitat for the endangered frogs that live throughout southeastern Australia. Waddle has worked with other frog conservationists, encouraging local people to use apps such as FrogID. This lets users make audio recordings of frog calls and upload them to an online database, togeher with GPS data. Experts then identify the frogs and notify the users.Jodi Rowley, a herpetologist at the Australian Museum Research Institute in Sydney and lead scientist for FrogID, says that tens of thousands of people across Australia use the app, and have put more than 1.3 million frog records on the map. The app has contributed to the discovery of 13 frog species and is actively used by communities to monitor local frog populations. Now, regular FrogID users can get frog-sauna information and updates. “We are hoping that communities are using the app to record their local frogs and potentially determine whether the frogs do better after the installation of frog saunas,” Rowley adds.Beyond black and white: an ecologist applies racial-justice principles to predators and their ecosystems

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RESEARCH BRIEFINGS
13 August 2025

A humidity index has been developed that considers lateral flow along rivers and groundwater systems, as well as precipitation, potential evaporation and plant transpiration. It performs better than a conventional humidity index when describing water availability for ecosystems and societies in arid regions. More

“In this picture, I’m working with my four-legged companion, Yang Mei (Little Sheep) near a small village called Nanxi on the eastern coast of Taiwan. I’m an ecologist studying lowland evergreen subtropical forests. I’ve been conducting research here for the past three years and have known Yang Mei since she was a puppy.Not all forest areas are safe for her. In some places, local people have set traps for deer and wild pigs, so she has to stay behind, which she hates.My research is on secondary forest succession, for my doctorate at the University of Melbourne, Australia. I want to understand how forests grow back after agricultural abandonment. The plot I’m studying in this photo was once a citronella plantation (Cymbopogon nardus), then a rice paddy (Oryza sp.), then an orchard. For the past 16 years, it’s been regenerating back into forest.To select areas to survey, I use a compass to get a bearing, and measuring tapes to mark out a specific plot across the slope. When this photo was taken, besides Yang Mei, my team members were Chance, a volunteer from Utah, and Mr Lai, a local landowner. He’s extremely knowledgeable about local plants.

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Download the Nature Podcast 06 August 2025In this episode:00:45 Researchers develop a new glue and test it on a rubber duckAided by machine learning, researchers have developed a super-sticky compound that works as an underwater adhesive. Inspired by animals like barnacles, the team developed a new kind of a material called a hydrogel. The material is capable of securely fastening objects together even when immersed in salty water— a challenge for existing adhesives. To show off its properties the researchers applied it to a rubber duck, which stuck firmly to a rock on a beach despite being battered by waves.Research Article: Liao et al.News and Views: AI learns from nature to design super-adhesive gels that work underwater07:37 Research HighlightsThe tomato-infused origins of the modern potato — plus, a specific group of stem cells that may help to drive osteoarthritis.Research Highlight: Potato, tomato: the roots of the modern taterResearch Highlight: Ageing stem cells in the knees drive arthritis damage09:46 The diversity of microbes within living treesBy taking samples from more than 150 trees in a forest in the United States, researchers have revealed a previously unknown community of microorganisms living there. Although the microbiomes of animals have been well explored, studies looking at the microbes living inside trees are limited. In this work, the team shows distinct populations of microbes living within different parts of a tree, and huge diversity in populations between trees. The team behind the work hopes these findings will lead to a greater understanding of tree physiology and the role these microbes play in broader ecosystems.Research Article: Arnold et al.18:46 The ‘de-extinction’ debateBack in April, the company Colossal Biosciences claimed to have de-extincted dire wolves, a large-bodied wolf species that once roamed North America. We discuss the science behind this technology, and the debates within the research community surrounding Colossal’s announcement.News Feature: This company claimed to ‘de-extinct’ dire wolves. Then the fighting started.Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or your favourite podcast app. An RSS feed for the Nature Podcast is available too. More

At the third United Nations Ocean Conference in June, UN member states committed to reducing the flow of pollutants from rivers to oceans (see go.nature.com/44yengt). But discussions missed a key factor in how land and sea are connected — through the migratory fish, birds and marine mammals, such as seals, that move between oceans or rivers and land (S. A. Sandin et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 119, e2122354119; 2022).
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Farming of giant prawns (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) is a booming industry, worth more than US$2.45 billion. But the gene pool from which prawns are bred is narrowing. China farms more than half of all giant prawns, depending entirely on cultured strains that have substantially less genetic diversity than do wild populations (Q. Shen et al. Aquac. Rep. 38, 102356; 2024) — and so are more susceptible to disease. By contrast, countries such as India, which mainly uses wild, genetically diverse prawns, rather than strains bred for desirable traits, are struggling with low larval survival and yields (B. R. Pillai and D. Panda J. Aquac. 33, 1–14; 2024).
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Growing up in the forests of Chicago, Illinois, and the deserts of Phoenix, Arizona, Jaida Elcock never had much access to the ocean — and was even afraid of sharks. But the more she learnt on TV documentaries, the more she realized that we should be advocating for their conservation. “I really don’t want to know what an ocean without sharks looks like,” she says. Having earnt a biology degree at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, and worked her way up through various internships and laboratory technician positions, Elcock is now a graduate student based in Falmouth, Massachusetts, studying the movement ecology of basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus). Along the way, she faced racism, sexism and discrimination, she says.In 2020, the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, sparked civil unrest in the United States. On the same day as Floyd’s murder, a white dog walker falsely reported Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper after he asked her to put her dog on a lead. This inspired many Black naturalists, including Elcock, to speak out on social media about their right to exist and occupy outdoor spaces, she says. It also led to the #BlackInNature hashtag, through which Elcock started chatting with fellow shark researchers Amani Webber-Schultz, Jasmin Graham and Carlee Jackson-Bohannon. Pleasantly surprised to realize there were other Black women working in shark science, the four came together and founded Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS), registered in Bradenton, Florida. Its mission is to advance marine sciences by challenging the status quo of what people think a scientist looks like. MISS works to support under-represented and historically excluded communities to help them to feel confident and accepted in science by providing them with access to a community, knowledge and training opportunities. Five years later, the organization has around 400 members in more than 30 countries. What was it like for you as a young Black shark scientist?I got a lot of pushback for wanting to become a marine scientist. I was once told that I got my university scholarship because of affirmative action, not because I deserved it. People would say things like “Black people can’t swim. How are you going to work with sharks?”. These ridiculous stereotypes exist because of systemic racism that has led to a generational fear of water in a lot of Black communities, and that is not our fault. (When public swimming pools became popular in the United States in the 1920s and 30s, segregation meant that Black people had less access and so less opportunity to learn to swim.)I was also told that, as a woman, I wouldn’t be strong enough to handle sharks and I should be in the kitchen or raising a family. The Minorities in Shark Science team.Credit: Julia Wester, Field SchoolFor many people, encountering racism and sexism is incredibly discouraging. Why would you want to start a career in which you might hear those things all the time? But I used this pushback as fuel. If you tell me I can’t do something because of a terrible and irrational reason that’s based in hate, racism and sexism, I’m going to say: ‘Okay, watch me’. When we co-founded MISS, we wanted to create a community of people with shared experiences who would support each other, provide a safe space and create opportunities to help them further their careers. Breaking down the social and financial barriers to getting opportunities in the field of marine science was a key goal.We launched on Juneteenth (19 June) 2020. This is a really important day for the Black community in the United States: it’s the day that the last enslaved people received word that they had been freed, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, in which president Abraham Lincoln declared that all slaves in the Confederate states were now considered free. Launching on this day was a way of showing our dedication, support and pride in who we are. Do you feel like the perception of what a shark scientist looks like is changing?Yes, at least in the spaces I’m in. With MISS, we now have a community of minority scientists that people can contact when they want to highlight certain people in science, whether that’s for a TV show or a school talk. TV production teams now have somewhere to go to when most shark scientists on their shows are white dudes and they want to highlight the amazing work of other scientists as well. That’s not to say that these white guys aren’t also good at their job, but we want to remind people that there are other scientists out there. For younger people, seeing themselves represented is so important, and I think we’re seeing a shift. Young people are now more exposed than before to all these diverse people in science. Seeing someone else who looks like them doing it shows that it could be an option for them, too. Do you see any parallels between the stereotypes of who can be a shark scientist and which of the 500 or so shark species typically get more attention, such as great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias)? On nature shows, you always see the same thing — great whites breaching — and that’s cool. But what about the swell shark (Cephaloscyllium ventriosum), which swallows seawater to prevent itself from getting eaten by predators? What about the pocket shark (Mollisquama parini) that spews bioluminescent goo out of a pocket behind its fins? There are parallels with diversity in science, for sure. You often see this one type of scientist — in the same way you see this one type of shark — but there are so many other cool options. We can show appreciation for all these other sharks and shark scientists as well. The more diversity we have in people, the more diversity we’ll get in thought. That’s going to lead to more innovation, more discovery and better science as a whole.How does MISS help its members?We run webinars and pair people up with mentors to help them apply for funding opportunities, fellowship programmes or graduate school. We also fundraise and apply for grants to support marine scientists from minority groups. We also run collaborative working groups, opportunities such as shark-tagging workshops and our Diversifying Ocean Sciences programme, in which people can learn lab and fieldwork techniques. Jaida Elcock handling a shark tail while at sea.Credit: Jackson Coles, Field School

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