Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Friday, May 24th, 2013

Study: Amphibians Disappearing at Alarming Rate

Author:     JEFF BARNARD
Source:     Denver Post/The Associated Press
Publication Date:     05/23/2013 01:45:05 PM MDT
 Link: Study: Amphibians Disappearing at Alarming Rate
Stephan:   Frogs, and toads, like bees, are metaphorically canaries in the mine. We also live in this mine, earth's biosphere. The bees are in desperate shape. Now it has become clear that the same is happening to the Amphibians. By their disappearance in the environment we are being told that the ecosystems of the earth are moving into crisis. We live in the earth, not on it, embedded in the biosphere, and part of the great interdependent, interconnected network of life. The impact on each of us of the change that is taking place is not going to be good. The full published study discussed in this report is to be found on: PLOS One: http://bit.ly/12Nxina Why are we doing this? Because the structure of our society has as its first priority -- profit. It is a measure of how enthrall to profit we are that we will not acknowledge what is happening. This story is an update of a trend I first published on Tuesday 20 September 2005: 'The Frogs are Trying to Tell Us Something.' In the eight years since that first report, things have only gotten worse. And this alarming and important trend has gotten almost no attention.

GRANTS PASS, OREGON — A new study has determined for the first time just how quickly frogs and other amphibians are disappearing around the United States, and the news is not good.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday that populations of frogs, salamanders and toads have been vanishing from places where they live at a rate of 3.7 percent a year.

That puts them on a path to disappearing from half their inhabited sites nationwide in 20 years.

USGS ecologist Michael J. Adams said the alarming news is that even species thought to be doing OK are declining, though at a slower rate, 2.7 percent a year.

‘These are really ancient species that have been surviving a long time on earth through all kinds of changes,’ Adams said. ‘It’s just a concern to see.’

The data showed that species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list of declining species were disappearing from sites at an even higher rate, 11.6 percent a year. That would result in half the sites being unoccupied in six years. A third of amphibian species are on the red list.

‘They just disappear,’ Admas said. ‘Populations are going away.’

It has been known for a long time that amphibians are […]

Read the Full Article