Data from: Design- and model-based strategies for detecting and quantifying an amphibian pathogen in environmental samples

Accurate pathogen detection is essential for developing management
strategies to address emerging infectious diseases, an increasingly
prominent threat to wildlife. Sampling for free-living pathogens outside
of their hosts has benefits for inference and study efficiency, but is
still uncommon. We used a laboratory experiment to evaluate the influences
of pathogen concentration, water type, and qPCR inhibitors on the
detection and quantification of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) using
water filtration. We compared results pre- and post-inhibitor removal, and
assessed inferential differences when single versus multiple samples were
collected across space or time. We found that qPCR inhibition influenced
both Bd detection and quantification in natural water samples, resulting
in biased inferences about Bd occurrence and abundance. Biases in
occurrence could be mitigated by collecting multiple samples in space or
time, but biases in Bd quantification were persistent. Differences in Bd
concentration resulted in variation in detection probability, indicating
that occupancy modeling could be used to explore factors influencing
heterogeneity in Bd abundance among samples, sites, or over time. Our work
will influence the design of studies involving amphibian disease dynamics
and studies utilizing environmental DNA (eDNA) to understand species
distributions.