Amphibian Population die off Concern Scientists
Pastor Dale Morgan
Jul 19, 4:48 PM EDT
*Amphibian Population die off Concern Scientists*
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Missouri and Illinois conservationists are seeing
troubling signs in amphibian populations, mirroring problems seen
elsewhere in the world.
Jeff Briggler, an amphibian specialist at the Missouri Department of
Conservation, wasn't expecting good news when he swabbed slime off a
2-foot-long hellbender salamander in the Ozarks last year. An analysis
by technicians showed some of the state's hellbenders were infected by a
fungus that has wiped out entire frog populations elsewhere.
Scientists have known for some time that endangered hellbender
populations in the Ozarks have been shrinking. One reason is lost
habitat; fungus may be another, they told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in
Thursday's edition.
"We need to understand why we are losing species in Panama, Asia, my own
backyard in Illinois, and across the river in Missouri," said Karen
Lips, a zoologist at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. "This
is not just a problem of global amphibian decline. It is a problem of
global amphibian extinction."
The World Conservation Union proposed a global plan that would curb
amphibian decline three weeks ago. Divided into sections based on the
top 11 amphibian plagues, such as climate change and infectious disease,
the plan sets guidelines for conservation in different parts of the
world. The five-year initiative has a price tag of more than $400 million.
Almost one-third of the world's 6,000 amphibian species are on the brink
of extinction. But just 12 percent of all bird species and 23 percent of
all mammal species are threatened.
Scientists are finding many reasons for the decline of amphibians:
habitat destruction, pollution from pesticides and herbicides, and the
proliferation of exotic species that can lead to the decline of native
species.
But amphibian populations are also declining in areas that do not have
those problems.
One emerging infectious disease is caused by the very same fungus,
called chytrid (pronounced "kit-rid"), that Briggler found on
hellbenders. Scientists confirm that the fungus has led to the demise of
amphibian populations in the Americas, the Caribbean and Australia.
Researchers have more to learn about how the fungus devastates amphibian
populations. It may act by infecting the skin with so many fungus cells
that the frog, which uses its skin to breathe, essentially suffocates.
A research team from Canada and California examined preserved museum
specimens and found that some frogs had been infected in parts of North
America since the 1960s. Although the fungus may be the same, the
environment has changed. Researchers think that current lethal outbreaks
are the result of underlying, predisposing factors.
But fungal infection pales in comparison to threats from habitat loss
because of urban development and agriculture in Missouri and Illinois,
area herpetologists say.
Harsh winters and hot summers limit the fungus in the Midwest. While
many frogs and salamanders safely rest in burrows below ponds in the
winter, freezing temperatures kill the fungus.
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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch: http://www.stltoday.com