Uno por uno, en una tarea paciente y titánica, anfibios vulnerables son recolectados, colocados en cuarentena e incluso alimentados a mano por expertos en suelo panameño. Leer más.
The makers and users of toxic pesticides have launched a full-court press to rollback vital protections for our water. HR 872 and S. 718 would prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from finalizing and implementing a new general permit that will help reduce the levels of pesticide in our nation’s waters. Leer más.
Scientists and conservationists agree that introduced plants and animals represent the single greatest threat to the terrestrial ecosystems of Galapagos. Since the discovery of Galapagos in 1535, humans have brought many alien species to the islands—some intentionally, including goats, pigs, cats, and both ornamental and food plants (vegetables and fruits), to name a few—while others, including rodents, insects, and weedy plants, have been carried to the islands accidentally. Leer más.
Chytridiomycosis, the emerging disease caused by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is responsible for declines and extirpations of amphibian populations worldwide. Environmental covariates modify the host-Bd interaction and thus affect the ongoing spread of the pathogen. One such covariate may be the intensity of ultraviolet B (UV-B) radiation. In a field experiment conducted in Laguna Grande de Peñalara (central Spain), a mountainous region where the presence of Bd has been documented since 1997, we analyzed the potential effect of environmental UV-B (daily maximum 2.5–3.9 W/m2) on the susceptibility of larvae of the common toad (Bufo bufo) to Bd. The proportion of infected individuals increased as tadpoles developed. The prevalence of Bd was significantly lower in tadpoles exposed to environmental UV-B intensities (2.94%) than in tadpoles not exposed to the radiation (9.72%). This finding mirrors that seen for a second amphibian species, the European midwife toad (Alytes obstetricans), for which conditional prevalence (i.e., prevalence of infection conditioned on the probability of a site being infected) across the Iberian Peninsula was inversely correlated with the intensity of UV-B. Leer más.
Approximately 115 species of amphibians live in the Mediterranean region, and the level of endemism is very high as the majority (64%) are found nowhere else in the world. Leer más.
