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Science 23 August 1991:
Vol. 253. no. 5022, pp. 892 - 895
DOI: 10.1126/science.253.5022.892
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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


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