Central America hosts a diverse, unique, and imperiled amphibian fauna, and for decades Central America been a major epicenter of research into amphibian decline and conservation. Why are Amphibians in Decline? ABSTRACT.—Amphibian declines and extinctions are critical concerns of biologists around the world. 80. Data on current amphibian extinction, extant diversity, and background extinction rates. More than half of all European amphibians (59 percent) and 42 percent of reptiles are in decline, which means that amphibians and reptiles are even more at risk than European mammals and birds. 1 see www.amphibiaweb.org for an updated tally. Threatened Amphibians of the World is a visual journey through the first-ever comprehensive assessment of the conservation status of the world's 6,000 known species of frogs, toads, salamanders, and caecilians. In 2004, scientists from Conservation International, IUCN-The World Conservation Union, and NatureServe analyzed the distribution and conservation status of all of the world’s amphibian species known at that time. Amphibians are facing an extinction crisis, but getting to the facts has been difficult. According to the IUCN Red List 41% of the world's amphibian species are threatened with extinction, making them more threatened than any other vertebrate group nowadays. 60. AMPHIBIAN DECLINE OR EXTINCTION? In recent years, scientists and conservationists have been working to raise public awareness of a global decline in amphibian populations. The ASG is a network of the world’s leading amphibian experts providing the scientific foundation to inform and promote effective amphibian conservation. ; 4 These studies highlighted the urgent need to identify formally those amphibian species that were declining and needed conservation attention. The IUCN Red List is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity. Survival Commission, which is coordinating the Global Amphibian Assessment and the Global Mammal Assessment. In recent years, scientists and conservationists have been working to raise public awareness of a global decline in amphibian … For 23 percent of amphibians and 21 percent of reptiles the situation is so severe that they are classified as threatened in the European Red List. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, at least 1,856 amphibian species are threatened with extinction, representing 32 percent of all species. 20. Amphibian decline and the USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) Robert Fisher – Western Ecological Research Center ... • IUCN Least Concern amphibians: -2.7% • IUCN Red Listed amphibians: -11.6% • A decline in Least Concern species demonstrates the importance of rigorous monitoring. The causes of these declines are numerous and complicated, and in any case might include habitat alteration, disease, climate change, pollution, collection by humans, or even a thinned ozone layer in our atmosphere.Sometimes the cause is obvious—over 95% deforestation of tropical dry forests where we work in western Ecuador being the glaringly clear reason for amphibian disappearance. 120. In this critical and quantitative review, we synthesize current knowledge regarding amphibian decline and conservation in the seven countries that constitute Central America. Wednesday September 5, 2007. IUCN Amphibian Specialist Group. There are 495 currently … A new study finds that more than 1,000 amphibian species poorly known to science are likely facing extinction, adding to the already identified 4,200 species the UN says are in peril. 485 TABLE 1. Established in 1964, The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. CABS also … In this critical and quantitative review, we synthesize current knowledge regarding amphibian decline and conservation in the seven countries that constitute Central America. The estimated current rate of amphibian extinction is known, but how it compares to the background amphibian extinction rate from the fossil record has not been well studied. I compared current amphibian extinction Herpetologists first started noting that amphibian populations were falling at many of their study sites in the 1980s; however, those early reports were anecdotal, and many experts doubted that the observed declines were cause for concern … 14K likes. 0. 40. 100. These values were obtained from IUCN (1994) unless otherwise indicated. 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