Amphibian Declines

The Conservation Status of United States Species

Michael Lannoo

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9780520235922
• eBook ISBN: 9780520929432
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

This benchmark volume documents in comprehensive detail a major environmental crisis: rapidly declining amphibian populations and the disturbing developmental problems that are increasingly prevalent within many amphibian species. Horror stories on this topic have been featured in the scientific and popular press over the past fifteen years, invariably asking what amphibian declines are telling us about the state of the environment. Are declines harbingers of devastated ecosystems or simply weird reflections of a peculiar amphibian world?

This compendium—presenting new data, reviews of current literature, and comprehensive species accounts—reinforces what scientists have begun to suspect, that amphibians are a lens through which the state of the environment can be viewed more clearly. And, that the view is alarming and presages serious concerns for all life, including that of our own species.

The first part of this work consists of more than fifty essays covering topics from the causes of declines to conservation, surveys and monitoring, and education. The second part consists of species accounts describing the life history and natural history of every known amphibian species in the United States.

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• ADVISORY BOARD
• CONTRIBUTORS
• PREFACE
• PART ONE - Conservation Essays
• INTRODUCTION
• 1 Diverse Phenomena Influencing Amphibian Population Declines
• 2 Why Are Some Species in Decline but Others Not?
• 3 Philosophy, Value Judgements, and Declining Amphibians
• 4 Embracing Human Diversity in Conservation
• 5 Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force
• DECLINES
• 6 Meeting the Challenge of Amphibian Declines with an Interdisciplinary Research Program
• 7 Biology of Amphibian Declines
• 8 Declines of Eastern North American Woodland Salamanders
• 9 Decline of Northern Cricket Frogs (Acris crepitans)
• 10 Overwintering in Northern Cricket Frogs (Acris crepitans)
• CAUSES
• 11 Repercussions of Global Change
• 12 Lessons from Europe
• 13 Risk Factors and Declines in Northern Cricket Frogs (Acris crepitans)
• 14 Ultraviolet Radiation
• 15 Xenobiotics
• 16 Variation in Pesticide Tolerance
• 17 Lucké Renal Adenocarcinoma
• 18 Malformed Frogs in Minnesota: History and Interspecific Differences
• 19 Parasites of North American Frogs
• 20 Parasite Infection and Limb Malformations: A Growing Problem in Amphibian Conservation
• 21 Pine Silviculture
• 22 Commercial Trade
• CONSERVATION
• 23 Houston Toads and Texas Politics
• 24 Amphibian Conservation Needs
• 25 Amphibian Population Cycles and Long-Term Data Sets
• 26 Landscape Ecology
• 27 Conservation of Texas Spring and Cave Salamanders (Eurycea)
• 28 Lessons from the Tropics
• 29 Taxonomy and Amphibian Declines
• 30 Conservation Systematics: The Bufo boreas Species Group
• 31 Factors Limiting the Recovery of Boreal Toads (Bufo b. boreas)
• 32 Southwestern Desert Bufonids
• 33 Amphibian Ecotoxicology
• 34 Museum Collections
• 35 Critical Areas
• 36 Creating Habitat Reserves for Migratory Salamanders
• 37 Population Manipulations
• 38 Exotic Species
• 39 Protecting Amphibians While Restoring Fish Populations
• 40 Reflections Upon Amphibian Conservation
• SURVEYS AND MONITORING
• 41 Distribution of South Dakota Anurans
• 42 Nebraska’s Declining Amphibians
• 43 Museum Collections Can Assess Population Trends
• 44 Monitoring Salamander Populations in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
• 45 North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (NAAMP)
• 46 Evaluating Calling Surveys
• 47 Geographical Information Systems and Survey Designs
• 48 Impacts of Forest Management on Amphibians
• 49 Monitoring Pigment Pattern Morphs of Northern Leopard Frogs
• EDUCATION
• 50 The National Amphibian Conservation Center
• 51 A Thousand Friends of Frogs: Its Origins
• A PERSPECTIVE
• 52 Of Men and Deformed Frogs: A Journalist's Lament
• PART TWO - SPECIES ACCOUNTS
• Introduction
• ANURA
• Ascaphidae
• Bufonidae
• Dendrobatidae
• Hylidae
• Leptodactylidae
• Microhylidae
• Pelobatidae
• Pipidae
• Ranidae
• Rhinophrynidae
• CAUDATA
• Ambystomatidae
• Amphiumidae
• Cryptobranchidae
• Dicamptodontidae
• Plethodontidae
• Proteidae
• Rhyacotritonidae
• Salamandridae
• Sirenidae
• FACTORS IMPLICATED IN AMPHIBIAN POPULATION DECLINES IN THE UNITED STATES
• CONCLUSION
• LITERATURE CITED
• INDEX