Why Is The Amphibian Population In Rapid Decline?

[NATO AIR]

this is a tragic mystery, why is this happening to all the frogs?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6249901/

Amphibian decline is rapidly worsening
More than 32 percent of species threatened worldwide, study finds

The Associated Press
Updated: 4:35 p.m. ET Oct. 14, 2004
WASHINGTON - Frogs, newts and other amphibians are becoming threatened worldwide, and their rapid decline appears to be worsening, a team of researchers reported Thursday.

“What we’re seeing here is completely unprecedented declines and extinctions,” said Simon N. Stuart of the World Conservation Union, lead researcher on the study.

These declines are “outside our normal experience,” Stuart said in a telephone interview.

Causes remain a mystery
There are a variety of reasons for some losses, while others remain a mystery, the group reports in a paper being published online by the journal Science.

Amphibians have porous skins and narrow environmental requirements, and their decline may be an indication that something sinister is under way in the environment, Simon said.

“Where amphibians proceed, others may follow, possibly us also,” he said.

The researchers reported that 1,856 species, 32.5 percent of the known species of amphibians, are “globally threatened,” meaning they fall into the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s categories of vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. By comparison, 12 percent of bird species and 23 percent of mammal species are threatened.

The researchers reported 435 amphibian species are in rapid decline, at least nine species have gone extinct since 1980 and another 113 species have not been reported from the wild in recent years and are considered to be possibly extinct.

Their findings, called the Global Amphibian Assessment, were compiled by more than 500 scientists in 60 countries.

‘In deep trouble’
“All in all, amphibians are certainly in deep trouble in many areas, for a whole suite of reasons,” said Ross A. Alford, a professor of tropical biology at James Cook University in Australia.

Alford, who was not a co-author of the report, said via e-mail that the study “has done a good job of documenting (the decline), and also of pointing out how much more we need to know to really understand the scale of the problem and begin to attempt to solve it.”

Indeed, he added, the report may even understate the problem due to the patchiness of knowledge of amphibians.

“It is quite possible that there are as-yet large-scale ... declines, similar to those that have been documented for Australia and the New World tropics, that are occurring or have occurred” elsewhere, said Alford, author of a 1999 study of amphibian decline.

Trevor Beebee of the University of Sussex in England added that amphibians may be a type of warning, like the canaries miners used to take with them because the birds are more sensitive than people to the dangerous gases that can occur in mines.

“In my view this assessment of amphibian declines is very important, because it quantifies an extremely worrying set of observations,” Beebee said via e-mail. “Amphibians are declining in many places all over the world, often in areas where we might expect human effects to be minimal.”

Exploitation, habitat loss contributing factors
The new paper concludes that while exploitation and loss of habitat are factors in some losses, other declines remain enigmatic, occurring for unknown reasons.

Overexploited species are concentrated in East and Southeast Asia, where frogs are harvested for food, the report says. Habitat loss occurs more widely, but especially in Southeast Asia, West Africa and the Caribbean, it adds.

A major concern, the researchers say, are the enigmatic declines and disappearances occurring in North and South America, Puerto Rico and Australia.

“Such declines have taken place even within well-protected areas, such as Yosemite National Park (California), Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve (Costa Rica) and Eungella National Park (Australia),” the researchers wrote.

Some studies have associated these unexpected declines with a fungal disease that tends to occur at higher elevations and streamside locations, the report notes. Beebee also suggested subtle effects of climate change may also be at work.

Funding for the Global Amphibian Assessment was provided by the Moore Family Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Conservation International, MAVA Foundation, U.S. State Department, Regina Bauer Frankenberg Foundation for Animal Welfare, National Science Foundation, Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, television producer George Meyer, conservation supporters Ben and Ruth Hammett, and the Disney Foundation.

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

[nakedemperor]

This is going to get no traction...frog's aren't furry or cuddly or cute looking.

"Study: Puppies spontaneously combusting!" That would work.

In a serious/similar note; why are asthma rates going through the roof?

 

[NATO AIR]

This is going to get no traction...frog's aren't furry or cuddly or cute looking.

"Study: Puppies spontaneously combusting!" That would work.

In a serious/similar note; why are asthma rates going through the roof?

cause the air is dirty and polluted with god knows what in it.

 

[nbdysfu]

Because we live in fake colonial villages isolated among four lane roads, and have to breathe each other's exhaust fumes just to buy a loaf of bread or take a kid to their friend's. Even though we live outside of cities, in the outdoors, with our own lawns, we get less exercise because it's impractical to walk or bike anywhere?

I think this country needs a change in thinking on public transportation, focusing less on highways and more on commuter rail. That would both reduce pollution, reduce the amount of time we inhale that pollution in traffic jams, and get us off our asses. Imagine a life without traffic jams.

 

[Avatar4321]

Maybe the environmentalists have done such a good job protecting their natural predators that they are eating more amphibians than normal.

 

[NATO AIR]

Maybe the environmentalists have done such a good job protecting their natural predators that they are eating more amphibians than normal.

it would not shock me.

 

[Joz]

this is a tragic mystery, why is this happening to all the frogs?

I don't know. But I'll bet it's Bush's fault somehow.

 

[dmp]

Maybe Frogs are supposed to die out...(shrug). Species have been going extinct for thousands of years.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

this is a tragic mystery, why is this happening to all the frogs?

William Joyce has been feeding again?

 

[dilloduck]

I would be tickled pink if someone would take all the damn toads from around here !!

 

[Mainframe]

Maybe Frogs are supposed to die out...(shrug). Species have been going extinct for thousands of years.

uh. no.

something has obviously compromised their environment or something else has been introduced to their environment to lead to their demise.

im not sure what tho

 

[MJDuncan1982]

Maybe Frogs are supposed to die out...(shrug). Species have been going extinct for thousands of years.

Supposed to die out? Where is this guidebook showing the appropriate chronological demise of each species.

 

[CSM]

It's because they don't have wings! How many times have I heard ..."if frogs had wings..."?

 

[Joan]

And if you kiss one - it will NOT turn into a prince - I have surrounded myself with frogs, both live and stuffed - and it hasn't worked!

 

[deaddude]

Frogs are very suseptible to air polution because of their highly porous skin. Frogs breath through their skin and pollution mucks things up.

 

[nbdysfu]

You know, I think I remember the exact thing happening in 1992?... and then also in 1996 and 2000. Hmm, maybe it's all the hot air blowing around in an election year.

 

[White knight]

Part of the reason is a fungus that came out of nowhere and has been spreading around the planet. One study found that due to chemicals in weed killers added with a predator in their habitat, this would cause stress and a population decline. I’m sure the insects they are eating are not totally chemical free.

 

[onedomino]

Frog extinction? This news must have been particularly disturbing in France.

 

[White knight]

Another reason may be that they are getting it from both ends. pollution in the water and on land.

 

[Joz]

uh. no.

.....something has obviously compromised their environment .......to lead to their demise.

im not sure what tho

How about the increased sport of gigging?