Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Cambridge Healthtech Institute

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 23 August 1991:
Vol. 253. no. 5022, pp. 892 - 895
DOI: 10.1126/science.253.5022.892
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Declining Amphibian Populations: The Problem of Separating Human Impacts from Natural Fluctuations

JOSEPH H. K. PECHMANN 1, DAVID E. SCOTT 2, RAYMOND D. SEMLITSCH 3, JANALEE P. CALDWELL 4, LAURIE J. VITT 4, and J. WHITFIELD GIBBONS 2

1 Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, P.O. Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802, and Department of Zoology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27706
2 Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, P.O. Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802
3 Zoologisches Institut der Universität Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057, Zürich, Switzerland
4 Oklahoma Museum of Natural History and Department of Zoology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019

Reports of declining amphibian populations in many parts of the world are numerous, but supporting long-term census data are generally unavailable. Census data from 1979 to 1990 for three salamander species and one frog species at a breeding pond in South Carolina showed fluctuations of substantial magnitude in both the size of breeding populations and in recruitment of juveniles. Breeding population sizes exhibited no overall trend in three species and increased in the fourth. Recent droughts account satisfactorily for an increase in recruitment failures. These data illustrate that to distinguish between natural population fluctuations and declines with anthropogenic causes may require long-term studies.

Submitted on April 4, 1991
Accepted on July 19, 1991


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
From the Cover: Amphibian and reptile declines over 35 years at La Selva, Costa Rica.
S. M. Whitfield, K. E. Bell, T. Philippi, M. Sasa, F. Bolanos, G. Chaves, J. M. Savage, and M. A. Donnelly (2007)
PNAS 104, 8352-8356
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
From The Cover: Emerging infectious disease and the loss of biodiversity in a Neotropical amphibian community.
K. R. Lips, F. Brem, R. Brenes, J. D. Reeve, R. A. Alford, J. Voyles, C. Carey, L. Livo, A. P. Pessier, and J. P. Collins (2006)
PNAS 103, 3165-3170
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Controlling for the Effects of History and Nonequilibrium Conditions in Gene Flow Estimates in Northern Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) Populations.
J. D. Austin, S. C. Lougheed, and P. T. Boag (2004)
Genetics 168, 1491-1506
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Reversing introduced species effects: Experimental removal of introduced fish leads to rapid recovery of a declining frog.
V. T. Vredenburg (2004)
PNAS 101, 7646-7650
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Intraspecific heterochrony and life history evolution: Decoupling somatic and sexual development in a facultatively paedomorphic salamander.
T. J. Ryan and R. D. Semlitsch (1998)
PNAS 95, 5643-5648
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Biodiversity : loss.
K. J. Gaston (1995)
Progress in Physical Geography 19, 255-264
   PDF »
Declining Amphibian Populations.
D. B. WAKE (1991)
Science 253, 860
   PDF »
Predator-induced stress makes the pesticide carbaryl more deadly to gray treefrog tadpoles (Hyla versicolor).
R. A. Relyea and N. Mills (2001)
PNAS 98, 2491-2496
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)