Global warming from a frog’s perspective: A call for immediate action

Resumen

We, the frogs, have continuously inhabited and evolved on this planet since the Devonian period some 350 million years ago. Our calls announce the beginning of spring, we keep insect populations under control, we serve as toxic pollutant indicators for human health, we are bellwethers for environmental change, we provide important medicine from the chemicals we produce, we help forest peoples hunt food with our poisons, we inspire art and poetry, and perhaps most importantly we inspire peoples to appreciate nature. Once a stronghold of 6200 species, we are now disappearing rapidly and scientists predict that nearly one third, or about 2000 species, will disappear within this century. Our population declines have been attributed to a number of factors such as habitat loss, disease outbreaks, and environmental pollutants (Stuart et al., 2004; Blaustein et al., 2010). In particular, the global spread of an emerging infectious disease, the pathogenic chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has resulted in population collapses and outright extinctions among many amphibian taxa over the past 20 years (Fisher et al., 2009; Blaustein et al., 2010). Now, we serve as indicators to humans of a more insidious slow-motion catastrophe playing out on a global scale. Human-created climatic shifts resulting in increasing temperature and changing precipitation patterns are having large impacts on amphibian assemblages, population numbers, reproduction, behavior, phenology, and physiology (Blaustein et al., 2010). The climate changes are resulting in desiccation of ponds and aquatic breeding habitats, reducing leaf litter, reducing precipitation in cloud forests, all culminating in increased stress, disease outbreaks, and mortality (Pounds and Crump, 1994; Pounds et al., 1999; Whitfield et al., 2007; McMenamin et al., 2008; Blaustein et al., 2010). This article will highlight some of the severe climate-related threats that amphibians are dealing with around the world.