Amphibians' Accelerating Decline LInked To Fungus - NYT

[hatrack]

"Frogs and toads lack the majesty of tigers, the cuddliness of pandas and the symbolic value of bald eagles. Nor are they as startlingly beautiful as, say, butterflies and orchids. Yet for 180 million years, they have been playing an important role in the broad scheme of life. Without frogs to eat them, mosquitoes would overrun valuable residential and recreational areas. Without frogs' eggs and tadpoles to eat, fish and water birds would abandon many lakes and ponds, or die of starvation.

But frogs worldwide are in an accelerating decline, with some species disappearing even before scientists can document their existence. Because most species live both on land and in water, they are vulnerable to more than the usual number of threats to survival in modern times: habitat destruction, toxic chemicals, invasive species, climate change and depletion of the ozone layer, as well as the prodigious human appetite for their delicately flavored legs.

EDIT

Now frogs and their fellow amphibians are facing what may be an even greater threat - attacks by emerging pathogens, especially a fungus with the daunting name Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Dr. James P. Collins, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at Arizona State University in Tempe, said 32 strains of the fungus had been linked to the decline and extinction of frogs and toads in North and Central America and Australia. In Costa Rica and Panama, the fungus has been associated with declining numbers of three-fourths of the frog species surveyed. Some scientists fear that the disease will reach the limited range of the Panamanian golden frog, now the focus of an international effort to prevent its extinction.

In Australia, 46 species have been infected with the fungus, with 13 declining and 3 becoming extinct as a result. Dr. Collins said the fungus was the first of its kind known to kill vertebrates. It causes a skin infection and probably interferes with absorption of oxygen from water, he said."

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/29/science/29frog.html

[Mnemosyne]

1. I've noticed a huge decline in # of frogs and toads in my

area< nw pA, since I was a little girl, I'm 46 now.

It's now rare to see them around here, also salamanders.

Funny, there is also a huge overgrowth of the fungus candiasis albicans in humans now, apparently worldwide problem.

Thanks hatrack!

[blindpig]

2. There's been some speculation

that the fungus in some cases might actually have been spread by globe trotting herpetologists. The fear is that spores lodged in field boots have hopped from one study site to the next, trans-continentally.
Certainly not the cause of the whole problem and possibly paranoia.
As an amateur herpetologist I have certainly noticed a decline in a number of species most notably salamanders in the mountains nearby and in species that breed in vernal ponds, though I think that the drought of recent years and the failure of spring rains is the probable culprit in that case.