Karen Lips

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Karen Lips
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
University of Maryland, College Park
ThesisThe population biology of Hyla calypsa, a stream-breeding treefrog from lower Central America (1995)
Doctoral advisorJay M. Savage
WebsiteResearch website

Karen R. Lips is a Professor of Biology at University of Maryland, College Park. Lips' work in the 1990s eventually contributed to the identification of the chytrid fungus as the primary cause of frog decline worldwide.

Education and early career

Lips received her

herpetologist Jay M. Savage.[1] Her doctoral research centered on studying the population ecology of Isthmohyla calypsa—a tree frog found only in the Talamancan mountains—in the Reserva Protectora Las Tablas in Costa Rica. She moved to the region in 1991 and by 1993 observed that the population of these frogs had declined dramatically. She documented their population dynamics and breeding patterns in her dissertation, The population biology of Hyla calypsa, a stream-breeding treefrog from lower Central America.[2] During her graduate work, she also documented the disappearance of the toad Incilius fastidiosus, on the heals of the mysterious extinction of the golden toad.[3] While she initially did not have an explanation for the disappearances she'd observed, her graduate work—combined with the observations of a number of amphibian ecologists—eventually contributed to the identification of chytridiomycosis, an infectious disease that has wiped out amphibian populations around the world.[4][5]

Research

Lips research primarily centers on understanding the ecological and environmental factors that influence how amphibian species respond to diseases in order to devise evidence-based strategies for conservation and recovery of endangered species. She and her collaborators also work to determine how human activities can contribute to the spread of diseases and the ultimate

loss of biodiversity.[6]

Following her PhD, Lips became an Assistant Professor at

chytrids.[7][8] Amphibians drink and breathe by absorbing water and oxygen through their skin, but chytrids grow all over their bodies and interfere with their blood chemistry, leading to organ failure and eventual death. Since Bd was identified, it's been implicated in the collapse or extinction of over 200 amphibian species.[8]

Between 1998 and 2008, Lips was an Assistant, and later Associate, Professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. In 2004, her graduate students observed and began documenting a new chytrid outbreak in El Copé, Panama.[9] In the wake of the outbreak, Lips and her colleagues in ecology and environmental conservation began evaluating the threat of such epidemics on biodiversity and discussing policy interventions.[10]

Starting in 2008, Lips became a Professor at University of Maryland, College Park, where she currently serves as the Director of the Graduate Program in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology. She also holds a Research Associate appointment at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and at the U.S. Museum of Natural History. In this position, she has studied the amphibian declines in several more regions, including those documented over the last 50 years in the Appalachian Mountains in collaboration with her colleague Dick Highton.[11] Her research group and collaborators have also observed and documented the spread of chytrids to salamander populations, which are infected by a species related to Bd known as Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, or Bsal.[12] The exotic pet trade has been implicated in the spread of Bsal, and Lips and her colleagues successfully advocated for banning salamander import into the United States.[13][14]

Advocacy and public engagement

Between 2016 and 2017, Lips served in the

STEM education, and increasing representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
fields. She also traveled to posts across Latin America and the Caribbean to meet with decision makers, leaders in science, and educators to discuss science and education.

Lips has also engaged in science communication. She wrote about her early experiences in amphibian conservation as part of a special PLOS Biology collection “Conservation Stories from the Front Lines," which was curated in part by Liz Neeley, the Executive Director of the science-inspired storytelling nonprofit The Story Collider.[15][3][16] She published a similar account for Scientific American, advocating as well for the importance of science communication to raise awareness around issues of conservation.[17] She has also used her writing as a platform for advocacy, for instance, co-authoring a 2015 op-ed in The New York Times warning against the import of Asian salamanders through the pet trade to stop the spread of Bd to American salamanders.[18] The advocacy efforts of her and her colleagues led the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to ban the import of 201 salamander species under the authority of the Lacey Act, which went into effect January 2016.[19][20]

Her general publications about frogs inspired a German documentary film company, mobyDOK, to collaborate with her on a 16-minute animated film titled "The Waiting"[21] about the extinction of frog species due to the still unstoppable spread of the Chytrid fungus. The film was shown in competition in the short film programme at the 2023 Berlinale.[22]

Awards and honors

References

  1. ^ "Karen Lips | Amphibians.org". Amphibian Survival Alliance. February 26, 2013. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  2. ^ Lips, Karen (January 1, 1995). "The population biology of Hyla calypsa, a stream-breeding treefrog from lower Central America". Dissertations from ProQuest.
  3. ^
    PMID 29408868
    .
  4. ^
    ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  5. PMID 28080989
    .
  6. ^ a b c "Lips Bio". sites.nationalacademies.org. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  7. PMID 9671799
    .
  8. ^
    ISSN 1059-1028
    . Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  9. PMID 16481617
    .
  10. S2CID 82731991
    .
  11. ^ "Scientists Say Amphibian Die-Offs Hit Area Years Ago". WAMU. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  12. PMID 25359973
    .
  13. ^ Achenbach, Joel (May 10, 2018). "Exotic pet trade linked to invasive fungus that's killing frogs globally". The Washington Post.
  14. ^ Revkin, Andrew C. (March 21, 2015). "Riled Herpetologists Press Obama Administration to Protect America's Salamanders from a Fungal Threat". Dot Earth Blog. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
  15. PMID 29401208
    .
  16. ^ Yeo, Sophie (June 5, 2018). "When Scientists Become Storytellers". Pacific Standard. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  17. ^ Lips, Karen. "What If There Is No Happy Ending? Science Communication as a Path to Change". Scientific American Blog Network. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
  18. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved December 24, 2018.
  19. ^ Resnick, Brian (December 10, 2015). "The US just banned salamander imports, hoping to stave off disaster". Vox. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
  20. ^ "Injurious Wildlife: Listing Salamanders as Injurious Due to Risk of Salamander Chytrid Fungus". www.fws.gov. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
  21. ^ "The Waiting". IMDb com. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  22. ^ "The Waiting". berlinale.de. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  23. ^ "Fellows Directory | Page 6 | Leopold Leadership Program". leopoldleadership.stanford.edu. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  24. ^ "2016–2017 Leshner Leadership Institute Public Engagement Fellows: Climate Change". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
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