Scientists scramble to save dying amphibians

[Frog News]

Mongabay News (California, USA) April 28th, 2011 12:51 PM: Scientists scramble to save dying amphibians

In forests, ponds, swamps, and other ecosystems around the world, amphibians are dying at rates never before observed. The reasons are many: habitat destruction, pollution from pesticides, climate change, invasive species, and the emergence of a deadly and infectious fungal disease. More than 200 species have gone silent, while scientists estimate one third of the more than 6,500 known species are at risk of extinction. Species are disappearing even before they are described by scientists — a study published in Proceedings of the Nation Academy of Sciences last year found that 5 of the 30 species known to have gone extinct in Panama's Omar Torrijos National Park since 1998 were unknown to science.

But the news gets worse. Chytridiomycosis — which is caused by a microscopic fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) that lives in water and soil — is spreading, metastasizing across Central and South America, Africa, and Australia. Amphibians are even experiencing rapid decline in habitats unmarred by the pathogen, pesticides, or direct human influence. Research in Costa Rica has recorded a 70 percent decline in amphibians over the past 35 years in pristine habitats, suggesting that climate shifts are taking a toll.

Scientists now call the worldwide decline of amphibians one of the world's most pressing environmental concerns; one that may portend greater threats to the ecological balance of the planet. Because amphibians have highly permeable skin and spend a portion of their life in water and on land, they are sensitive to environmental change and can act as the proverbial "canary in a coal mine," indicating the relative health of an ecosystem. As they die, scientists are left wondering what plant or animal group could follow.

In Panama, scientists are taking the threat to amphibians very seriously — chytrid recently "jumped" the Panama canal, moving West to East across the country toward Colombia. Conservationists have set up an an emergency conservation measure to capture wild frogs from infected areas and safeguard them in captivity until the disease is controlled or at least better understood. The frogs will be bred in captivity as an insurance policy against extinction.

Scientists now call the worldwide decline of amphibians one of the world's most pressing environmental concerns; one that may portend greater threats to the ecological balance of the planet. Because amphibians have highly permeable skin and spend a portion of their life in water and on land, they are sensitive to environmental change and can act as the proverbial "canary in a coal mine," indicating the relative health of an ecosystem. As they die, scientists are left wondering what plant or animal group could follow.

In Panama, scientists are taking the threat to amphibians very seriously — chytrid recently "jumped" the Panama canal, moving West to East across the country toward Colombia. Conservationists have set up an an emergency conservation measure to capture wild frogs from infected areas and safeguard them in captivity until the disease is controlled or at least better understood. The frogs will be bred in captivity as an insurance policy against extinction.

So far the project has established two facilities in Panama: one at the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center in western Panama and another at Summit Park near Gamboa in central Panama. Each has its own set of species targeted for rescue based on a prioritization system developed by the Amphibian Ark, a global initiative to reduce amphibian extinctions around the world.

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