Originally published February 23 2006
Species disappear, in part, because of global warming, scientists say
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Scientists in the journal Nature have linked the disappearance of more than 60 related frog and toad species from the tropical forests of Latin America in recent decades to global warming.
Writing in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, the scientists say that more than 60 closely related frog and toad species have vanished from the tropical forests of Latin America during the last few decades, partly because of warming temperatures.
The team says this is the first time such a connection has been made.
(Related video: Is global warming wiping out species of frogs in Central and Latin America?)
The research team found a "near lock-step (link) between the timing of losses and changes in climate," said lead scientist Alan Pounds of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve and Tropical Science Center in Costa Rica.
The University of Colorado's Cynthia Carey questioned why the new work ignores extinctions of related species after 1998.
That group and other researchers attribute the warming trend to the use of coal, oil and other fossil fuels, which emit carbon dioxide when burned.
Buildup of the gas in the atmosphere can trap heat.
Scientists already have evidence linking higher temperatures to changes in the behavior or range of hundreds of species, such as flowers that bloom earlier in the year.
Scientists in the U.N. group predicted in 2001 that global warming would produce a wave of extinctions.
"None of us expected that we'd be seeing massive extinctions in five years," said Camille Parmesan of the University of Texas.
She was not on the Pounds team but found the link between extinction and global warming "very convincing."
Pounds and his colleagues compared when a species was last seen with climate data.
Pounds and his team theorize that the changes in the region's climate are encouraging the growth of a parasite that spread around the world in the 1960s and is a known killer of frogs and toads.
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