Current:Home > MyScientists looked at nearly every known amphibian type. They're not doing great. -MoneyStream
Scientists looked at nearly every known amphibian type. They're not doing great.
View
Date:2025-04-13 12:10:02
When JJ Apodaca was starting graduate school for biology in 2004, a first-of-its-kind study had just been released assessing the status of the world's least understood vertebrates. The first Global Amphibian Assessment, which looked at more than 5,700 species of frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and other amphibians became "pretty much the guiding light of my career," said Apodaca, who now heads the nonprofit group Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy.
Nineteen years later, a second global assessment of the world's amphibians has been completed.
"It's a gut punch," said Apodaca, who was not involved in the study but has reviewed its findings. "Here we are 19 years later with things not only not improved but getting worse."
The assessment, published in the journal Nature, Wednesday, looked at two decades worth of data from more than 1,000 scientists across the world. It assessed the status of nearly for nearly every known amphibian on the planet, "Ninety-four percent," said Jennifer Luedtke, one of the lead authors on the study. Though, she noted, an average of 155 new amphibians are discovered each year.
Discovered or not, the study found that the status of amphibians globally is "deteriorating rapidly," earning them the unenviable title of being the planet's most threatened class of vertebrates.
Forty-one percent of the assessed amphibians are threatened with extinction in the immediate and long-term, Luedtke said. "Which is a greater percentage than threatened mammals, reptiles and birds."
Habitat loss from agriculture, logging and human other encroachment, was the biggest driver of the deterioration. As was the case in 2004. Diseases like the infectious chytrid fungus were a major threat as well.
But the scientists were struck by how fast climate change is emerging as one of the biggest threats to amphibians globally. Between 2004 and 2022, the time surveyed in the new assessment, climate change effects were responsible for 39% of species moving closer to extinction, Luedtke said. "And that's compared to just one percent in the two decades prior."
As global temperatures have warmed, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, the length and frequency of droughts is increasing. Seasons are shifting. Precipitation patterns are changing. Extreme weather events like hurricanes, heatwaves and wildfires are becoming more common.
And amphibians are particularly vulnerable to changes in their environment. Many rely on water to reproduce. They're cold-blooded and, thus, susceptible to small changes in temperature.
"They don't have any protection in their skin," said Patricia Burrowes, a professor of biology at the University of Puerto Rico. "They don't have feathers, they don't have hair, they don't have scales."
Scientists have documented many species moving to new places, retreating to higher ground, as temperatures have shifted. Burrowes studied the forest coqui, Eleutherodactylus portoricensis, a small, endangered yellow or tan frog, native to the mountains of Puerto Rico. It had been observed moving to higher elevations while some similar Puerto Rican frog species were not. Burrowes and a graduate student found that the specific, already endangered, forest coquis that were moving were more sensitive to small shifts in temperature.
"Patterns aren't predictable anymore," Burrowes said.
Salamanders and newts were found to be the most at risk, according to the new assessment. The highest concentration of salamander diversity in the world is in the southeastern U.S. — the Southern Appalachia — where Apodaca, the executive director of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy, works and lives.
"This isn't just a problem of things going extinct in the Global South and Australia and Central America and places like that," he said. "This is the story of things declining and being endangered right here in our own backyard, so it's our responsibility, our duty to save these things."
veryGood! (8)
Related
- NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
- Wealthy Nations Continue to Finance Natural Gas for Developing Countries, Putting Climate Goals at Risk
- Indigenous Land Rights Are Critical to Realizing Goals of the Paris Climate Accord, a New Study Finds
- A surprise-billing law loophole? Her pregnancy led to a six-figure hospital bill
- Federal Spending Freeze Could Have Widespread Impact on Environment, Emergency Management
- How (and why) Gov. Ron DeSantis took control over Disney World's special district
- Cardi B Is an Emotional Proud Mommy as Her and Offset's Daughter Kulture Graduates Pre-K
- Kylie Jenner Trolls Daughter Stormi for Not Giving Her Enough Privacy
- 'Survivor' 47 finale, part one recap: 2 players were sent home. Who's left in the game?
- Birmingham firefighter dies days after being shot while on duty
Ranking
- EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
- Media mogul Barry Diller says Hollywood executives, top actors should take 25% pay cut to end strikes
- See Landon Barker's Mom Shanna Moakler Finally Meet Girlfriend Charli D'Amelio in Person
- Kim Zolciak Teases Possible Reality TV Return Amid Nasty Kroy Biermann Divorce
- Toyota to invest $922 million to build a new paint facility at its Kentucky complex
- Tomato shortages hit British stores. Is Brexit to blame?
- Inside Clean Energy: What Lauren Boebert Gets Wrong About Pueblo and Paris
- ExxonMobil Shareholders to Company: We Want a Different Approach to Climate Change
Recommendation
Grammy nominee Teddy Swims on love, growth and embracing change
Kim Zolciak Teases Possible Reality TV Return Amid Nasty Kroy Biermann Divorce
Fox News stands in legal peril. It says defamation loss would harm all media
As a Senate Candidate, Mehmet Oz Supports Fracking. But as a Celebrity Doctor, He Raised Significant Concerns
Romantasy reigns on spicy BookTok: Recommendations from the internet’s favorite genre
Wayfair Clearance Sale: Save Up to 70% Off Furniture, Appliances, and More With Deals Starting at $8
Berta Cáceres’ Murder Shocked the World in 2016, But the Killing of Environmental Activists Continues
Adele Pauses Concert to Survey Audience on Titanic Sub After Tragedy at Sea