Remember this WUWT story? What frog science can teach us about global warming
From UC Davis: National survey finds frog abnormalities rare
A 10-year study shows some good news for frogs and toads on national wildlife refuges. The rate of abnormalities such as shortened or missing legs was less than 2 percent overall — indicating that the malformations first reported in the mid-1990s were rarer than feared. But much higher rates were found in local “hotspots,” suggesting that where these problems occur they have local causes. The results were published Nov. 18 in the journal PLOS ONE.
“We now know what the baseline is and the 2 percent level is relatively good news, but some regions need a deeper look,” said Marcel Holyoak, professor of environmental science and policy at the University of California, Davis, and a co-author on the study. Hotspot regions included the Mississippi River Valley, California and south-central and eastern Alaska.
Mari Reeves, a graduate student working with Holyoak, led the data analysis and is corresponding author on the paper. Reeves now works at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska.
Fieldwork for the study was carried out by the Fish and Wildlife Service at 152 refuges across the country between 2000 and 2009. Researchers collected more than 68,000 frogs and toads for the study. The complete dataset is available to researchers and the public online.
The aim of the study was to understand where and when these abnormalities occur — are they widespread, or localized? Are they persistent, or do they appear and fade away? — rather than to identify specific causes, Holyoak said. Understanding the patterns of these hotspots in space and time can help researchers home in on likely causes, he said.
The results show that abnormality hotspots occur in specific places, but within these hotspots the rate of malformations can change over time, Holyoak said.
“We see them at an elevated frequency one year or for a few years, and then they recover,” he said.
The most common problems observed were missing or shortened toes or legs, and skin cysts. Only 12 cases of frogs with extra legs were found.
Many different potential causes have been put forward for the abnormalities, including pollution from industry or agriculture, parasites, ultraviolet exposure and naturally occurring heavy metals leaching into water bodies. The exact cause may vary from place to place, Holyoak noted.
The study comes against a background of a general decline in amphibian populations both in the U.S. and worldwide. For example, the California red-legged frog celebrated by Mark Twain’s story is now listed as threatened. Frogs and toads may be especially sensitive to changes in climate and air or water quality. It’s not clear whether hotspots of malformations contribute to this general decline, Holyoak said, but the new dataset will help researchers explore the problem.
The study was funded by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Other authors were: Kimberly Medley and Pieter Johnson, University of Colorado, Boulder; Alfred Pinkney, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Annapolis; and Michael Lannoo, Indiana University School of Medicine.
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Another environmental LEAP for Mankind!
“Researchers collected more than 68,000 frogs and toads for the study…”
Headline:
FROG AND TOAD POPULATIONS PLUMMET; GLOBAL WARMING BLAMED
Why, just the other day, I said to myself, “Whatever happened to all those scare stories about frogs?”
We study close to home. It’s cheaper, safer and we already know a lot about it. Perhaps amphibians are (reasonably) not happy in urbanized or urban-effected places. They disappear where we are, just as wolves and bears don’t thrive with man.
A regional, man-associated problem, extrapolated globally. I wonder what the frog situation is in deep Amazonian forests NOT downstream of big mines.
If the global problem for frogs is people, then the study of frogs is background for a policy of not just birth control, but local population reduction. Man cannot exist in stability with the planet in current numbers. If the future is as bad as the worst scenarios, perhaps the extreme need would justify even extermination/cleansing campaigns.
It is weird how thinking a “problem” through in the climate wars keeps coming back to programs that don’t support more non-white, European-based, educated people. There is a good future, but only for people like Al Gore and David Suzuki.
Ribbit, Ribbit…RIBBIT! Kiss this frog and make it a prince. Biology prof. at small college in Iowa identified deformities as coming from a small, almost bacteria sized nematode worm infection.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/08/110802-frogs-deformed-parasites-animals-environment-mutants/
My appologies in advance for any inference 🙂
“Perhaps amphibians are (reasonably) not happy in urbanized or urban-effected places. ”
I dunno, they seem to be rather happy, and quite prolific, in our garden!
Not surprising in any way, shape or form.
I toad you so.
‘Collected 68,000 frogs’…… hmmmm, which type of frog would be easier to collect? those with all their extremities (legs) in top working order, or those with leg deformities?
Doug Proctor: “It is weird how thinking a “problem” through in the climate wars keeps coming back to programs that don’t support more non-white, European-based, educated people”
More properly, and without the overtones, it keeps coming back to the poor. If we could only get rid of them, we’d all be wealthy and have the money to burn finding problems for the solutions we have.
“Researchers collected more than 68,000 frogs and toads for the study…”
Dr. Medley noted there are only so many ways to prepare frog legs and, “I may never eat another one as long as I live”.
“Researchers collected more than 68,000 frogs and toads for the study…”
How many did they collect for the lounge? Oh, just a small sample.
vry sry, smack self.
Many different potential causes have been put forward for the abnormalities, including pollution from industry or agriculture, parasites, ultraviolet exposure and naturally occurring heavy metals leaching into water bodies. The exact cause…..
inbreeding
News Flash: Frog population decreases by 68,000….scientists don’t know why
…film at 11:00
“Frogs and toads may be especially sensitive to changes in climate and air or water quality”
The problem w/ young researchers, besides being brainwashed that CAGW is real, is they don’t have a clue how “bad” the air and water quality was before the clean air and clean water acts in the ’60’s and 70’s. So this statement, to me, means that as the air/water quality asymptotically returns to pre-industrial purities these amphibians could be adversely affected. GMaFB!
Also, steve salter said:
November 21, 2013 at 8:47 am
‘Collected 68,000 frogs’…… hmmmm, which type of frog would be easier to collect? those with all their extremities (legs) in top working order, or those with leg deformities?
—-
I think “collect” needs to be changed to “eat” (by predators).
Two Labs says:
November 21, 2013 at 8:44 am
Little ones live in my yard, but my town is tiny.
Some real causes of frog population declines, allegedly spread in some cases by researchers:
Parasite & virus infections:
http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/dao/v105/n2/p89-99/
And fungus:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23709470
As others have posted, I recalled the “end of times” predicted from frog population problems went away when it was discovered that a major source of the problems were from parasites and bacteria exascerbated by eco-tourism and frog research.
Years ago the bullfrog survival in ponds in our county was affected by the cottonmouth population and .22 hollowpoint bullets, which given the need to occasionally decrease the cottonmouth population were better than gigs. 68,000 frogs, if they were all bullfrogs…
The bad news stories make Page 1. The good news stories get buried (if they make print) somewhere near the classified ads. Who wants to know the planet is actually is quite good shape? Certainly not the MSM and the environmental activists who existance depends upon the scare stories and children emptying their piggy banks.
Climate researcher’s notes from an experiment to see how climate-induced loss of limbs affects frogs’ ability to survive:
Method: Set frog on level surface with distance markers. Make loud noise behind frog to get it to leap. Record distance. Amputate one limb and repeat, followed by other limbs.
Results:
Frog with four legs jumps six feet;
Frog with three legs jumps four feet
Frog with two legs jumps three feet
Frog with one leg jumps two feet
Frog with no legs is deaf.
Frogs and toads have been around since before the dinosaurs, survived the Yucatan impact and the unimaginable fallout that produced. I think they know a bit more about survival than us silly humans.
I wonder what the natural mutation rate would be? Two %?
The frog killing fungus has been known about since the late 1990s.
Then they tried to link it to global warming link it to global warming forgetting that the fungus hitched a ride on the researchers’ boots and tires who proceeded to spread it all over the place.
The fungus looks like it was spread not by global warming but by global trotting researchers and global trade.
Killing with kindness. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I would wager there would be HUGE interest in deformed frogs with more than 4 legs in Louisiana for breeding purposes. Especially if the additional legs were rear ones.
Funny how they mention the red legged frog as in decline but fail to mention that bull frogs, a non local species that was imported to the area to compete in frog jumping competitions that celebrate Mark twains writing about the red legged frogs, are everywhere and most likely at least partly responsible for the red legged frogs decline.