Talk:Australian Frogs
From EnvironmentWiki
All these quotes indicating a decline in frog populations in Australia are interesting. But can any of them be substantiated with any actual data. From memory the frog issue in the Conondale ranges coincided with a push to ban logging in the same region. --Jennifer Marohasy 13:31, 23 July 2008 (EST)
Original Message-----
In the academic articles, there is a tendency to consider Australian frog population declines in the context of declines of other frog populations, particularly in the US, Costa Rica, Brazil etc. I have collected a range of academic articles and I am working on going through them and the APVMA reports, CSIRO reports and other sources.
Frogwatch ended up being a dead-end. They have info on making a frog-friendly garden, identifying frogs and toad-busting (for cane toads) but they don't have any population info.
I am hoping Neil might incorporate the information at this blog post into this topic: http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/001248.html Including this comment: "Hi Jen, Biodiversity hotspots are areas that are deemed BOTH rich in plant and animal species, particularly with many endemic species AND ALSO under immediate threat from impacts such as land clearing, development pressures, salinity, weeds and feral animals.
Along with Madagascar and New Caledonia, the rainforests of north Queensland including the Daintree are recognised as one of three centres of global endemism. They contain an extraordinary biodiversity; the majority of species which are classified as either rare or threatened with extinction, and undisputedly conform with the first-mentioned criterion as a Biodiversity hotspot.
But are they under immediate threat from impacts such as land clearing, development pressures, salinity, weeds and feral animals?
According to Cafnec, The Wilderness Society, Queensland Conservation Council and The Greens readers would almost certainly think so.
And yet, the Australian Government's Threatened Species Scientific Committee, with input from recognised experts in the field of biodiversity conservation from each Australian State and Territory, determined otherwise.
In respect to the contemporary popularity of tree-frogs, which are recognised as early indicators of environmental stress, I am advised from time to time that certain endemic species are thought to have become extinct, whilst others are disappearing.
The above image of a green-eyed tree-frog is one of the latter. I found one during the day, some time ago, when I coincidentally took balance from a tree and registered a cold, wet sensation under my grip.
Upon meticulous scrutiny and after several minutes, I finally recognised the curvature of the eye. Its camouflage was superb.
I have the very great privilege of scrutinising the central Cooper Creek portion of the ancient Daintree rainforest, on a nightly basis and have done so for over twelve consecutive years. Indeed, I believe that I have familiarised myself with the nocturnal landscape of the Daintree more thoroughly than any other person in human history. On those exceptionally wet and rare nights when conditions are suitable for green-eyed tree-frogs to congregate for communal mating events, I might encounter 2000 frogs in two hours and yet I have never seen a research scientist crossing the flooded watercourses to get into the real action.
The politics of places like the Daintree are as dark and complex and densely interwoven as the jungle understorey itself. I suspect that the exclusion from the country's biodiversity hotspots reflects the federal coalition government's contempt for the Queensland and local government's popularist land-grab mentality.
Neil Hewett."
Ofcourse it would also be great if he included the picture. --Jennifer Marohasy 08:26, 24 July 2008 (EST)
Hey Neil,
The photographs are fantastic!!
http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/wiki/Frogs_of_the_Daintree_Rainforest
--Jennifer Marohasy 19:40, 28 July 2008 (EST)
Original Message-----
From: Nichole Hoskin [1]
The key references of Frog population numbers appears to be:
Tyler, M.J. 1991, ‘Where have all the frogs gone?’, Australian Natural History, vol. 23, pp. 618–625.
Tyler, M.J., 1997, The Action Plan For Australian Frogs, Wildlife Australia, April 1997, http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/action/frogs/index.html#contents <http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/action/frogs/index.html#contents> , However, this only lists the species a makes statements of fact that the particular frog population is declining
Tyler M.J. and M. Davies, ‘The gastric brooding frog’, pp 469-470, in G. Grigg, R. Shine and H Ehmann (eds), Biology of Australian Frogs and Reptiles, 1985.
There were quite a few articles that explore the prospect that declines in frog populations is caused by disease rather than chemical pollutants because there have been frogs dying in uncontaminated, 'pristine' environments. See:
Viriginia Morell, ‘Are Pathogens Felling Frogs?’, Science, 284, 30 April 1999, pp 728-731
William F Laurance, Keith R McDonald and Richard Speare, ‘Epidemic Disease and the Catastrophic Decline of Australian Rainforest Frogs’, Conservation Biology, 10(2), April 1996, p 406.
Berger et al. ‘Chrytridiomycosis Causes Amphibian Mortality Associated with Population Declines in the Rain Forests of Australia and Central America’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 95(15) July 21 1998, pp 9031-9036.
Fellers et al, ‘Oral Chrytridiomycosis in the Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog’, Copeia, 2004(1), pp 945-953
On the effects of drought on frog populations, ABC reported a environmental flow release in the lower Murrumbidgee in 2007, to stop a local frog species from becoming extinct. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/07/2112853.htm <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/07/2112853.htm> )
On methodology for estimating frog population numbers,
Driscoll, ‘Counts of Calling Males as Estimates of Population Size in the Endangered Frogs Geocrinia alba and G. Vitellina’, 1998, Journal of Herpetology, 32(4), pp 475-481
Climate Change/Variability and its effects on Frog populations, considered in, with references to sources of data:
Carey et al, 'Amphibian Declines and Environmental Change: Using Remote-Sensing Data to identify Environmental Correlates', Conservation Biology 15(4), August 2001, pp 903-913.
Alexander and Eischeid, 'Climate Variability in Regions of Amphibian Declines', Conservation Biology 15(4), August 2001, pp 930-942
Thanks for all these references. --Jennifer Marohasy 19:40, 28 July 2008 (EST)
from Nichole
What is Atrazine?
In Australia, “Atrazine is a herbicide which can be used both pre and post-emergence for the control of grass and broadleaf weeds in crops such as sorghum, maize, sugarcane, lupins, pine and eucalypt plantations, and triazine tolerant (TT) canola. Atrazine belongs to the triazine group of chemicals and was first registered in Australia in the early 1960s.”[1]
