[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/EW-08-19-14-Save-the-Frogs.mp3|titles=EW 08-19-14 Save the Frogs]
Since the 1980s, there has been a worldwide decline in the population of amphibians – frogs, toads, and salamanders. For a while, biologists were skeptical that these declines were anything more than natural variations. However, study after study has revealed that the amphibian decline is a real and severe threat to biodiversity.
Roughly half of amphibian species have decreasing populations, a third are globally threatened, and almost 500 species are critically endangered. The causes for this dramatic die-off appear to be varied. Some studies have concluded that farm pesticides are a major culprit. Other studies have identified a type of chytrid fungus that causes skin infections as a major contributor to the worldwide decline.
The global decline in bee populations has attracted enormous attention in no small part because bees play a critical role in the agricultural economy. Frogs are in fact important in medical research, but nevertheless don’t have the economic impact of bees.
Still, there are two important reasons that we should all be concerned about the decline in amphibian populations. One is that they play an integral role in many ecosystems around the world keeping them in balance both as predator and as prey. In our own gardens, a single toad eats about 10,000 insects over the course of a summer.
More critically, amphibians are a key bioindicator. They have been around for 250 million years and have survived everything the earth has subjected them to. Their sudden precipitous decline should serve as an alarm call for us that something is drastically wrong with the environment.
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Photo, posted July 27, 2013, courtesy of Holley and Chris Melton via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.