A new study published in the journal 'Nature' provides concrete evidence that global warming is the cause for the recent extinction of many species of frogs and other amphibians across the world according to a team of scientists from the United States and Latin America.
The study indicates that warming temperatures throughout the globe has been the major factor in the extinction of as many as 112 species of amphibians since 1980. More diseases and extinctions are expected to take place in the near future unless the global warming trend is reversed.
Amphibians are particularly vulnerable to climate change due to the fact that they have permeable skin and are cold blooded.
The lead author of the study, J. Alan Pounds and his team of 13 researchers studied global warming, the deadly chytrid fungus and its effect on frog species in Costa Rica.
'Disease is the bullet killing frogs, but climate change is pulling the trigger,' Pounds explained. 'Global warming is wreaking havoc on amphibians and will cause staggering losses of biodiversity if we don't do something first.'
Researchers noted that 65 harlequin frog species that had gone extinct since 1980 and that 80 percent of the time there was a correlation between higher temperatures and the species' disappearance. After a warm peak in 1987, for example, five species died off.
There's a coherent pattern of disappearances, all the way from Costa Rica to Peru,' Pounds said. 'Here's a case where we can show that global warming is affecting outbreaks of this disease.'
The findings of this study agree with the findings of a comprehensive study completed in 2004 about the gross reduction in the number of amphibians on the planet. That study found that climate change, pollution and deforestation were the major causes of the decline in the amphibian population worldwide.
