Environmentalists Against War

Global Warming Is Killing Amphibians and Dolphins

October 9th, 2023 - by Dino Grandoni / Washington Post & Al Jazeera

Climate Change Is Driving
Many Amphibians Toward Extinction
Dino Grandoni / Washington Post

(October 8, 2023) — A new ‘gut punch’ of a study shows that more than 40 percent of frogs, salamanders and other amphibian species are at risk of vanishing.

You know the story: Slowly turn up the heat on a frog in a pot of water, and the frog won’t hop out. Oblivious to the imperceptible increase in heat, it will stay put until — well, until it croaks.

When it comes to the effect of rising global temperatures on amphibians, the proverbial frog-boiling story is more than just a metaphor.

Climate change is emerging as one of the biggest threats to frogs and other amphibians, according to a major study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Between 2004 and 2022, rising temperatures became the primary reason more than 100 amphibian species are slipping toward extinction.

“It’s a gut punch and an awakening,” said J.J. Apodaca, executive director of the nonprofit Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy. He was not involved in the study.

The spread of disease among frogs and the destruction of swamps and other habitats have long been recognized as reasons many amphibians are declining.

But this new study establishes climate change as a major risk for amphibians around the world, too. The soft-skinned animals lack the scales, fur and feathers of other animals to help regulate their temperature and moisture levels in this hotter and more drought-stricken world.

“There is a growing proportion of species being pushed to the brink of extinction by disease and the effects of climate change,” said Jennifer Luedtke, an amphibian group coordinator with the International Union for Conservation of Nature and one of the lead authors of the study from more than 100 researchers.

“So habitat protection alone just won’t be sufficient as a risk-reduction measure.”

What We Lose When Amphibians Vanish
Over 2 in 5 amphibian species are at risk of extinction, according to the report, making them the most threatened group of vertebrates. By comparison, roughly a fourth of mammals and an eighth of birds are at risk of vanishing for good.

Frogs and other amphibians are “overlooked compared to more well-known groups like birds and mammals,” said Kelsey Neam, another study co-author. But losing amphibians would be devastating because they often act a crucial link in the food web of ecosystems, gobbling up insects and, in turn, being eaten by larger predators.

“Without those amphibians to fulfill that niche, we will see this collapse of the food web,” said Neam, who like Luedtke works for an Austin-based environmental group called Re:wild.

Among amphibians declining because of climate change are the coquí frogs native to Puerto Rico, which are retreating up the island’s mountains as temperatures go up.

Named for their two-note “co-qui” call, the island’s iconic frogs are decreasing in body size and croaking at a higher pitch as temperatures increase. Eventually, the island may get so hot that the frogs run out of room up the mountains. Already, at least three of Puerto Rico’s coquís are presumed extinct.

Another potential victim of climate change is the golden toad of Costa Rica. Hotter and dryer conditions in its forest home may have made the colorful toad more vulnerable to a deadly fungal disease that attacks amphibians’ skin. The last one was seen in 1989.

“It’s a beautiful, beautiful toad,” said Patricia Burrowes, a retired herpetologist at the University of Puerto Rico. “I’m old enough to have seen these frogs disappear.”

That fungal infection, called chytridiomycosis, has ripped through amphibian populations from Latin America to Africa to Australia, driving hundreds of amphibians toward oblivion. By one measure, it is causing the worst loss of biodiversity of any wildlife disease in history.

‘Not All Bad News’
Yet for all the threats frogs face, the study concluded the salamander is the most endangered type of amphibian. About 3 in 5 of the slender amphibians are at risk of vanishing, according to the study in Nature.

Many salamander species live in only one place, making them particularly susceptible to climate change and habitat fragmentation. The Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander, for instance, lives exclusively in a 14-mile-long canyon in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains.

“This isn’t a problem that exists in the tropics and doesn’t affect people here in the United States,” said Apodaca, who helped discover the salamander species.

The first major assessment of declines in amphibians came out in 2004, and this study uses the data from a recently completed second assessment. “Things have gotten even worse” since then, Apodaca said.

There are still signs of hope. Habitat protection and other conservation measures have helped in the recovery of more than five-dozen amphibians from Costa Rica to Malaysia.

“It’s not all bad news,” Luedtke said. “But we really must build on this momentum and significantly scale up investment in amphibian conservation.”

Amazon River’s pink dolphins are among the few freshwater dolphins.

Deaths of 120 Amazon Dolphins
Linked to Severe Drought, High Temperatures
Al Jazeera

(October 3, 2023) — The carcasses of 120 river dolphins have been found floating in a tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil over the last week in circumstances that experts suspect were caused by severe drought and heat.

The Mamiraua Institute, a research group at Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, said two more dead dolphins were found on Monday in the region around Tefe Lake.

Experts believe high water temperatures are the most likely cause of the deaths as temperatures since last week have exceeded 39C (102F) in the Tefe Lake region.

Thousands of fish have also died, local media reported.

“We have documented 120 carcasses in the last week,” said Miriam Marmontel, a researcher at the Mamiraua Institute.

Amazon river dolphins, many of a striking pink colour, are a unique freshwater species found only in the rivers of South America and are one of a handful of freshwater dolphin species left in the world.

Slow reproductive cycles make their populations especially vulnerable to threats.

Marmontel said roughly eight of every 10 carcasses being found are pink dolphins, which are called “boto” in Brazil, and could represent 10 percent of their estimated population in Lake Tefe.

“Ten percent is a very high percentage of loss, and the possibility that it will increase could threaten the survival of the species in Lake Tefe,” Marmontel said.

The boto and the grey river dolphin called the “tucuxi” are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species.

Brazil’s Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation has rushed veterinarians and aquatic mammal experts to rescue dolphins still alive in the lake.

The scientists do not know with certainty that drought and heat are to blame for the spike in dolphin mortality. They are working to rule out other causes, such as a bacterial infection that could have killed the dolphins.

But at least 70 of the carcasses surfaced late last week when the temperature of Lake Tefe’s water reached 39C, more than 10 degrees higher than the average for this time of the year.

The water temperature declined for a few days but rose again on Sunday to 37C (99 F), worried experts said.

Environmental activists have blamed the unusually hot conditions on climate change, which makes droughts and heat waves more likely and severe.

Ayan Fleischmann, the geospatial coordinator at the Mamiraua Institute, said the drought has had a significant impact on the riverside communities in the Amazon region.

“Many communities are becoming isolated, without access to good quality water, without access to the river, which is their main means of transportation,” he said.

Nicson Marreira, mayor of Tefe, a city of 60,000 residents, said his government was unable to deliver food directly to some isolated communities because the rivers are dry.