Wildlife at the Watering Hole - April - Britt Mitchell

Australia's frog species in the Anthropocene - responses to climate change and disease

Britt Mitchell

As human activities rapidly alter ecosystems across the globe, we need to understand how species are responding and/or adapting. Although seemingly well documented, how biodiversity is responding to anthropogenic change is relatively unknown. For amphibians, a taxon under immense threat globally, understanding their responses is crucial.

In this talk, Britt will discuss two key areas of her PhD research: 1) how frogs are changing body size in response to climate change, and 2) The effect of urbanisation on frog disease susceptibility by investigating changes in their skin antimicrobial peptides.

About Britt:

Britt is a PhD candidate at UNSW Sydney, supervised by A/Prof. Jodi Rowley, Prof. Louise Rollins-Smith, and Prof. Richard Kingsford. She has research interests in amphibian conservation in an ever-changing world – more specifically the effect urbanisation and climate change have on amphibian behaviour, ecology, and immunology. Her work involves a multi-disciplinary approach, utilising data from citizen science, museum collections, and satellites, in addition to field and lab-based studies. In particular, she is interested in using this information to directly inform conservation strategies for such a threatened taxon. In addition to her research, Britt is a passionate science communicator, dedicated to using her knowledge to educate the public about science. She has previously studied a Bachelor of Science (Biology and Immunology) at the University of Sydney, with Honours (Class I) undertaken jointly at UNSW Sydney and the Australian Museum.