Roundup Kills Frogs as well as Tadpoles, Pitt Biologist Finds

The Center for North American Herpetology ^ | 8/11/05 | Rick A. Relyea

[calex59]

Just to clarify, if frogs are surviving it means some of the frogs already have the gene they need to survive. That isn't evolution, it is survival of the fittest, which will not produce a new frog species but simply utilize the genes already present in the frog.

God doesn't need to interfere at this point as he has already included the needed gene into the frogs DNA.

The last sentance was a joke, BTW, as I am not a christian and do not subscribe to ID or creationism and I do not subscribe to evolution either.

If you are going to talk about species surviving attacks of this kind please stick to facts and don't try to make out as if survival of the fittest is evolution.

It has been proven not to be, by evolutionists, hence neo-darwinism with mutation thrown in. I will not go into that and leave it to you to flame me all you want. Don't count on me reading it however, because you will not use facts and simply call me names and I can do without name calling. Thanks.

[GreenFreeper]

No clinical data was presented but Relyea sums up some ideas pretty nicely

The cause of the high Roundup-associated mortality appears to result from direct toxicity (possibly due to damaged epithelial cells in the gills; Edginton et al. 2004) rather than any indirect effect of Roundup-in-duced reduction of algal food resources in the meso-cosms and subsequent tadpole starvation. Three pieces of evidence support this conclusion. First, I observed numerous dead tadpoles within the first 24 hours, which would not be expected if the cause of death were star-vation (Audo et al. 1995; the exact amount of death could not be quantified without destructively sampling the mesocosms). Second, in a separate mesocosm ex-periment, Roundup actually increased, rather than de-creased, periphyton biomass because there were so few tadpoles to consume the algae (Relyea 2005a). Third, in a laboratory study in which six species of North isopropylamine salt (the latter two formulations of gly-phosate lack the POEA surfactant). Perkins et al. (2000) American tadpoles were fed ground fish flakes, Round-up still caused rapid death at 1 to 5 mg AI/L (Relyea 2005b).

[tubebender]

Doesn't the new Round-Up carry a surfactant that wasn't in the original version? Knock off 41% glyphosate is available in Oregon for around $50 a gallon and less for 2 1/2 gallons....

[kickstart]

The last few years at the shooting club I belong to, I have seen frogs everywhere. Toads on the sporting clays trails, leopard frogs jumping through the grass on the archery and skeet range, bullfrogs and greenfrogs and misc. tadpoles in the pound and along the incoming and outgoing brooks. Ain't no shortage of the little buggers!

[Carry_Okie]

Doesn't the new Round-Up carry a surfactant that wasn't in the original version?

I don't know. Monsanto is very tight lipped about the surfactant system, but I have read that it is POEA (polyethoxylated tallowamine).

[tubebender]

My BiL grows grapes in Fresno County and I believe he told me about the reformulation a couple of years ago when Monsanto's patent ran out or it was a farm store in Oregon...

[Carry_Okie]

There is a special RoundUp for vineyards. There are also new granulars too.

[editor-surveyor]

Glyphosphate has been found to induce a mutiple sclerosis-like condition in humans, so who knows what it might do to frogs.

[SierraWasp]

"Skinks can also be found is some very dry places."

That line caused me to start singing the old hymn that said "Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin..." It save me from blurting out another off-color comment right here in the middle of a beautiful natural thread on anphibians in God's green earth!!!

See! He's not finished with me yet!!!

[Carry_Okie]

Raining Frogs in Egypt?

[Old Professer]

IOW, look out for the crooks!

[Old Professer]

Jumping into your argument would be akin to jumping overboard on a submarine.

[Old Professer]

My grandmother's oldest daughter used to make pickled beans and soap. her basement was a maze of crocks with the bathroom open to all who were successful in the negotiation.

[Old Professer]

When I'm upset, my son-in-law's wife is usually the cause (I love her dearly).

[SolidRedState]

Not very surprising as Roundup is not supposed to be used in wetlands. Now if the results were similar using Rodeo then we have something to talk about! Exactly. Why would you use Roundup around wetlands anyway?

We are completely surrounded here by crops of Roundup-Ready beans and we have had more frogs and toads in the last few years than I can remember. So this does not wash with me.

[SolidRedState]

Not very surprising as Roundup is not supposed to be used in wetlands. Now if the results were similar using Rodeo then we have something to talk about! Exactly. Why would you use Roundup around wetlands anyway?

We are completely surrounded here by crops of Roundup-Ready beans and we have had more frogs and toads in the last few years than I can remember. So this does not wash with me.

[Carry_Okie]

IOW, look out for the crooks!

The worst kind.

[Carry_Okie]

My grandmother's oldest daughter used to make pickled beans and soap. her basement was a maze of crocks with the bathroom open to all who were successful in the negotiation.

Sounds nasty. Was that digestion or emulsion?

[Old Professer]

It was a miasmic fantasy, all cloaky and gloom.

[Carry_Okie]

It was a miasmic fantasy, all cloaky and gloom.

A poisonous atmosphere formerly thought to rise from swamps and putrid matter and cause disease.

Reminiscent cause for a blue dart festival.

I have an in-law from Alabama (now a Baptist minister) who burned all the hair off his arms and eyebrows in just such an exposition.

I guess he was just flaming gaily.