This was an interesting article. I have seen Minnesota leopard frogs with missing and with extra parts, and have followed the research just enough to know that trematodes were involved in some cases of amphibian limb deformities. So it appears that a non-susceptible gray tree frog tadpole population can act as sponge to attract and kill the trematodes, lowering the infection rate for American toad tadpoles in the same system. Tadpoles that appeared to be simple competitors actually share a more complex relationship. It would be interesting to model this effect at different relative population densities of the two species of amphibians and at different densities of trematodes. It seems to me that at a low enough levels of trematodes or a high enough density of tree frog tadpoles that infections of toad tadpoles could be quite rare. It would also be interesting to see if presence of gray tree frog tadpoles was correlated with lower infection rates for American toad tadpoles in the field. Thanks for posting the link!
-Steve Morse
) and I find it very intriguing. Hope you enjoy.