Posted on 05/21/2006 3:33:08 PM PDT by SJackson
For the first time, scientists have documented a link between global warming — perhaps better described as human-induced climate disruption — and the significant loss of amphibian biodiversity. Alan Pounds, an ecologist at the Tropical Science Center’s Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in Costa Rica, led a team of 14 scientists that investigated the disappearance of more than 70 species of harlequin (Atelopus sp.) frogs in Central and South America. More than half of these frog species have gone extinct.
Researchers had identified the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis as the villain wiping out harlequin frogs, but until this study, published in the journal Nature, no one knew why the fungus had taken such a toll. Pounds’ team found the major culprit to be rising tropical temperatures and shifting weather patterns. “Disease is the bullet killing frogs, but climate change is pulling the trigger,” Pounds says. The researchers found that, more than 80 percent of the time, higher tropical temperatures corresponded to the disappearance of Atelopus species. After one unusually warm year, 1987, five species were lost.
From 1975 to 2000, average temperatures in the American tropics rose three times faster than the rate for the planet over the entire 20th century. This drastic increase has resulted in more water evaporation, less mist and a higher, thicker cloud cover in the region. The heavy clouds block enough sunlight to keep daytime temperatures lower than normal. But at night, the cloud cover prevents heat from escaping the atmosphere, leading to higher temperatures. The researchers argue that this combination of daytime cooling and nighttime warming creates an ideal environment for the chytrid fungus to thrive. Normally, this region is subject to temperature extremes that keep the fungus in check.
The researchers used satellite imaging to check for deforestation and concluded with “very high confidence” that global warming — not the destruction of habitat — has led to the simultaneous demise of harlequin frogs in diverse habitats. Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, one of the study’s authors, says there is “absolutely a linkage between global warming and this disease — they go hand-in-hand.”
Because amphibians have moist, permeable skin, they are highly sensitive to environmental change — even to minor shifts in temperature, humidity or water quality — and thus are unique indicators of ongoing climate disruption. The deadly chytrid fungus attacks the lunglike skin of these frogs and kills them.
Sanchez-Azofeifa is worried that too much of the climate change discussion concerns industrialized areas. Meanwhile, extremely sensitive ecosystems — such as tropical forests — receive little attention.
Shifting temperatures and weather patterns — caused by the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities — endanger plants and animals worldwide. According to Pounds’ team, “Climate-driven epidemics are an immediate threat to biodiversity ... the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas concentrations is now undeniable.”
i cannot tell a lie. Yes, I am the one going around the equator killing all the frogs in the rain forrests.
I do it for the excitement. It's a sexual thing.
This sentence is pure 100% statistical gobbledygook. It might be true, but it is made to sound dramatic while being totally irrelevant. And anyone with an ounce of mathematical sense who thinks on what it means can see it.
This article is a fraud.
I say let them evolve their way out of it.
I suspect the real link that caused this "very high confidence" was about getting more funding. Crying "global warming" is a hot commodity in junk science these days.
I suspected that for a long time, Joe. lol
ping
Wasn't there just a scientist on Dennis Prager, just last month, who debunked the 'frogs affected by global warming' non-theory. He laughed and rolled his eyes. I cannot believe they are still trying for mileage about this. About everything.
Libs LIVE for drama, I swear. If you cannot beat things into hysteria, it is not worth living.
Do you suppose that they got their hemp undies in a bunch over the ecological damage that Saddam did when he torched the oil wells in 91?
Sounds like the envirowackos are on a roll. Bill Clinton recently "linked" earthquakes to Al-Gore's "global warming."
Every time I read an article like this one, a whole flock of questions hop throguh my mind:
Does anyone know for certain how many frog "extinctions" there have been since the beginning of the pleistocene?
The causes of each extinction?
The distribution of man vis a vis the frog population?
Why do the frogs keep returning?
Will signing on to Kyoto solve this eternal problem?
How about sacrificing a couple of virgins? I'm sure we can scrape some up...
As are sunrises and sunsets. The corelation is indisputable. The longer we have sunrises and sunsets, the longer the frogs keep disappearing...
Ooooo, that plate looks good! Frog legs, yum!
I used to read Mother Earth News back in my younger days, when my friends told me that they could see me barefoot and pregnant in a commune someday.
Then I grew up...............
Frogs, I don't eat them. My dogs eat them, and I run them over on my mower, and still, each year, there they are, frogs.
You might like this thread, no one else is reading it.
Pay attention to the little steps they all count [commencement address, UW-Madison]
No kidding. Species go extinct all the time. It's called "evolution."
With a name like "Mother Earth News", it just has to be a superbly reliable source....
Yum, fried frog legs!
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