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Many of the causes of amphibian declines are well understood, and appear to affect other groups of organisms as well as amphibians. These causes include habitat modification and fragmentation, introduced predators or competitors, introduced species, pollution, pesticide use, or over-harvesting. However, many amphibian declines or extinctions ...
However, many of the causes of amphibian declines are still poorly understood, and the topic is currently a subject of ongoing research. Modeling results found that the current extinction rate of amphibians could be 211 times greater than the background extinction rate. This estimate even goes up to 25,000–45,000 times if endangered species ...
A 2019 Science review assessed that chytridiomycosis was a factor in the decline of at least 501 amphibian species during the past 50 years, of which 90 species were confirmed or presumed to have gone extinct in the wild and another 124 had declined in numbers by more than 90%. [37]
Most amphibian species are also threatened by native habitat loss, [41] and some species are now only breeding in modified habitat. [42] Endemic organisms with limited ranges are most affected by habitat destruction, mainly because these organisms are not found anywhere else in the world, and thus have less chance of recovering.
A recently described second species, B. salamandrivorans, also causes chytridiomycosis and death in salamanders. The fungal pathogens that cause the disease chytridiomycosis are known to damage the skin of frogs, toads, and other amphibians, disrupting their balance of water and salt and eventually causing heart failure, Nature reports. [4]
The World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report 2022 found that wildlife populations declined by an average 69% since 1970. [1] [2] [3]Defaunation is the global, local, or functional extinction of animal populations or species from ecological communities. [4]
A number of causes are believed to be involved, including habitat destruction and modification, over-exploitation, pollution, introduced species, global warming, endocrine-disrupting pollutants, destruction of the ozone layer (ultraviolet radiation has shown to be especially damaging to the skin, eyes, and eggs of amphibians), and diseases like ...
Causes include: Land clearance, such as clearcutting, overlogging and deforestation; Agricultural activities such as: Activities that lead to depletion of soil nutrients through poor farming practices such as exposure of naked soil after crop harvesting; Monocultures which destabilize the local ecosystem;