Strongest Link Yet To Climate, Disease Synergies Wiping Out Frogs Globally

[hatrack]

Also, if you link to the site, you'll notice four different versions of Newsweek. One of them is not like the other. See if you can guess which regional edition it is?

EDIT

There's one member of this pageant that won't be turning up, however: the Monteverde harlequin frog. Named after its palette of yellow, red and black, this miniature amphibian—a member of the genus Atelopus—had thrived in these Costa Rican mountains for perhaps a million years. Yet the last time J. Alan Pounds, an ecologist who has studied the cloud forest's wildlife for 25 years, spotted one in Monteverde was in 1988. Its cousin, the golden toad, went missing about the same time. Indeed, the more scientists search, the grimmer the situation looks. A study by 75 scientists published earlier this year in the journal Nature estimated that two thirds of the 110 known species of harlequins throughout Central and South America have vanished. And that may be just the beginning.

The loss of a species is sad enough, not least a jewel like the harlequin, which one researcher described as a tropical Easter egg. What has puzzled scientists is why. For millennia, this denizen of tropical America survived by adapting to whatever changes nature threw its way. Suckers lining the underbelly of tadpoles allow them to cling to rocks without being flushed downstream. The adult's carnival-like costume warns potential predators to stand clear or risk a deadly dose of tetrodotoxin. But apparently there's one peril the harlequin couldn't trump: climate change.

Monteverde gets its lifeblood from the trade winds, which blow moisture uphill where the air cools and condenses into clouds. An ark of plants, insects and animals flourishes in the cool misty mountains. Gradually, though, a warming trend has raised nighttime temperatures and increased cloud cover, which makes for cooler days by blocking solar radiation. The subtle change, which might go unnoticed by us bipeds, is thought to have been ideal for chytridomycosis, a disease caused by a waterborne fungus that has flared up throughout tropical Central and South America. Scientists believe the chytrid disease kills the frogs by blocking their natural ability to absorb water through their porous skin (and perhaps also by releasing a toxin), essentially causing them to die of dehydration. What really frightens researchers, however, is the potential implications of the die-off. "There's basically a mass extinction in the making," says Pounds. "I think amphibians are just the first wave."

EDIT

The trouble at Monteverde only heightened a mystery that had scientists stumped for years: why do whole species of wildlife disappear in apparently pristine parks and nature preserves? There had been no shortage of theories to explain the demise of the harlequins, from acid rain to an overdose of ultraviolet rays. By the late nineties, attention shifted to the chytrid fungus outbreaks, which many amphibian experts concluded were the smoking gun. But Pounds wasn't satisfied. After all, it wasn't just harlequins, but all kinds of amphibians that were dying. And if the chytrid disease was killing the frogs, what was behind the deadly outbreak? In time, Pounds learned that the fungus flourished in the wet season and turned lethal in warm (17 to 25 degrees Celsius) weather—exactly the conditions that climate change was bringing to the cloud forest. More important, he found that 80 percent of the extinctions followed unusually warm years. "The disease was the bullet killing the frogs, but climate was pulling the trigger," says Pounds. "Alter the climate and you alter the disease dynamic."

EDIT

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15176444/site/newsweek/

[nam78_two]

1. Very interesting and scary

Man this is just so sad to boot...
What makes me even sadder is that barring the implications to humans, 90% of people probably wouldn't even care or just ridicule it...
We have no respect for other species.....

[rkc3]

2. 2/3 of the species have died off and this is just the beginning?

Sounds like it's near the end for the frogs to me.

It's ironic that as we continually to try to change the world to suit our needs, those species that can't adapt just disappear. At some point though, we won't be able to adapt either and will follow their path.

It's also ironic that the people who tell us extinction is the fault of these creatures because they can't evolve also tell us evolution doesn't exist.

[blm]

3. Excellent and simple point.

,

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. K&R

Hey hatrack! :hi:

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Just out of curiousity,

What balance would it serve nature to lower the number of frogs in a globally hotter climate? What benefits in nature, and is there an environmental benefit, even if it's not a benefit to mankind?

[druidity33]

6. hmmm...

what benefit can there be to a break in the web? To a weak link in the chain?

:shrug:

[Crunchy Frog]

8. Benefits insects.

:shrug:

[nam78_two]

12. Well thats part of it I think

One of my friends who is an ecologist puts it this way: when nature is in equilibrium overall, it works to preserve the equilibrium, but when things start going wildly wrong, climate patterns as well as other natural patterns start breaking in response.
Thus things aren't optimized anymore.......:shrug:

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. I think I answered my own question.

Nature will restore its own balance, but it might not be beneficial to us. This is the way I see it. Once the frogs are gone, we'll see an increase of disease as insects will be abundant, doing what they do best. Also, our food supply will diminish as there is a species kill-off. Increase in disease and the loss of mankind's food source will wipe out mankind. With the loss of mankind, nature has in essence, eliminated the force that created the imbalance in the first place. Once that force is eliminated, nature will start all over, probably introducing life in a way that we wouldn't recognize today, and may not even be compatible with.

[Crunchy Frog]

7. Of all the things happening in the world right now

this is the one that I find the most heartbreaking. :cry:

[lvx35]

9. Its happening all over. The wasps are acting wierd here

due to the summer stretching basically into October. The summer wasps are still out, but the "feeder" ones inside the hive have gone into hybernation, so we have all these wierd wasps all around trying to feed themselves off sugar from the ground and trash cans. This is how an ecology student explained it to me anyhow.

[nam78_two]

13. yeah butterfly patterns are changing where I live

Many butterfly species showing up late here.....

[tavalon]

14. Yeah, we had our usual dry summer

but the rains should have come in late September and still, nothing. I look outside and see the blue sky and feel a weird sinking feeling. The rain needs to come. It's a falsehood that Seattle gets rain all of the time, we get the rain in the fall, winter and into spring. We're a month into fall now and no rain. It's scary. I will be so much happier when the skies turn gray and the daily watering commences.

[lvx35]

19. No need to tell me about it!

I'm sitting 60 miles south here in Olympia, on this fine sunny, 75 degree mid October day on the 47th parallel!!!!

[tavalon]

20. It's hard to call them fine, though they surely are

It just fills me with a worry, bordering on deep dread. Though I know Gaia will live on, I don't wish to travel off this mortal coil by a weather borne early end. The rains need to come.

[lvx35]

21. Scares the hell out of me too.

Because its so gradual, and humans aren't wired to freak out over gradual things. But sometimes when I'm going to sleep I see the earth, the endless pulse of cars off on the highways, and my subconcious really puts two and two together: This could kill me.

edit: its even freakier than that. Its freakier than anything. Is Bush establishing a dictatorship? That for instance is comparatively insignificant thing. There have always been tyrannies, and people suffer, and they fall, but global warming is something fundamentally different than anything any previous generation had to deal with.

[sce56]

10. Geez next thing you know we will be talking about the Anti Christ in the

White House and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse



Got Fascism Yet?

[mcscajun]

11. The frogs have been going for some time, as have toads...

...and the list of "ripple effects" the minimal climate change (yes, minimal so far) has already caused is lengthy and horrifying.

The ocean food chain is breaking down, the frogs are leaving, the elephants have gone berserk (with good reason), butterflies are on the wane, mosquitos are on the rise (UGH!), we've got glacial melt and glacial retreat in full progress, "dead zones" proliferating on the world's coastlines, thinning ozone at the poles with associated rises in skin cancer and vision disorders; and that's just for starters.

Oh yeah, the next fifty years are going to be some party :sarcasm:
and when the frogs and toads are gone, it'll be an Insect Extravaganza of biblical proportions.

[Nihil]

15. That should please some people ...

> and when the frogs and toads are gone, it'll be an Insect Extravaganza
> of biblical proportions.

Hey! You wanted to live like in the Bible? YOU GOT IT NOW!

[PhilYerHead]

16. just cry.

:grouphug: :cry: :shrug:

I'm just so sorry.

[brokensymmetry]

18. Things are happening quickly, aren't they?

People talk about 2100...I begin to wonder if we
won't see serious, painful change by 2025. Or
perhaps before.

Meanwhile, we use ever more coal.

[bloom]

23. That's what I think

Every time they mention 2100 - I think what about in 20 years? or 10?

[appal_jack]

22. time for pro-active solutions

The news about frogs is undoubtedly grim. But there are things you can do to support your local frogs and toads. If you have even a small yard, cultivate some areas into tall (unmown) grasses (like Japanese Bloodgrass or even pampas grass) and shrubs. If you have damp spots and wetlands, leave them be - they will grow asters, bulrushes and other native plants (plus maybe some loosestrife, but even that noxious invader creates shade and habitat). If you lack wetlands, consider creating a small water feature - frogs and toads will find it eventually. Create adult-toad habitat in your garden by leaving broken terra-cotta pots on their sides in nooks and crannies (i.e.- under some of those shrubs) for "toad houses." Don't use chemical pesticides, especially not Roundup (which too many consider "safe" but the surfactant in it kills tadpoles). If your neighbors complain about weeds in your driveway, use the opportunity to describe why you choose to avoid toxic pesticides,

It's probably the unfortunate truth that the species which survive this massive extinction will be the species that we choose to help. Frogs and toads are high on my list (along with owls, bats, heirloom grains, &, &, &...)

-app