Monitoring
The detection of disease induced population declines relies heavily on long-term monitoring schemes. Several European NGO’s developed programs where individual amphibian species, populations and communities are followed in long-term monitoring schemes. Long-term studies are extremely valuable to assess population trends and can act as an early warning system when populations are declining (especially rapid declines). Sharp declines can be a sign of the involvement of a pathogen, like Bsal, and follow up research can quickly be deployed. Various locations are monitored for many years, some are still available and new ones are regularly created.
