"Amphibian Population Decrease"

Essay by Frog9091College, Undergraduate April 2003

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There is no debate between researchers from anywhere in the world over whether or not amphibian populations have been declining. They have been. These researchers have been studying amphibians from various parts of the globe to discover what has been causing this alarming decrease. The truth is, the severe decline in amphibian population is directly related to the over population of humans. transition

Amphibians have always been survivors. They did, after all, survive two extinction episodes, including that of the dinosaurs. With this in mind, it is understandable how surprised and alarmed a group of scientists who met in England in 1989 were when they realized that all of them where noticing declines and disappearances of amphibian populations in every part of the world ( NAAMP 1). The most obvious reason for this was the destruction of their habitat. On the prairies about 70% of wetlands have been drained to make way for farmland.

In Ontario, Canada, it is even worse with 90% of the wetlands being destroyed. That means only one in ten ponds remain. This is an obvious reason for the population bust. After all,"Imagine if we removed 90% of the apartment buildings. Would anyone be surprised if the number of humans in the area declined?"( CARCN 1) Even if we manage to leave a few ponds, we manage to separate them by many miles making it impossible for populations of amphibians who rely on immigrants from other populations to support them and help avoid inbreeding to intermingle with other ponds. While the death of the population in the isolated ponds is not sudden, it will eventually happen. However, even the obvious threat that the loss of habitat and variety of organisms makes to the populous cannot account for all of the decline. The same population decay is...