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Climatic change and wetland desiccation cause amphibian decline in Yellowstone National Park - PubMed

  • ️Tue Jan 01 2008

Climatic change and wetland desiccation cause amphibian decline in Yellowstone National Park

Sarah K McMenamin et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008.

Abstract

Amphibians are a bellwether for environmental degradation, even in natural ecosystems such as Yellowstone National Park in the western United States, where species have been actively protected longer than anywhere else on Earth. We document that recent climatic warming and resultant wetland desiccation are causing severe declines in 4 once-common amphibian species native to Yellowstone. Climate monitoring over 6 decades, remote sensing, and repeated surveys of 49 ponds indicate that decreasing annual precipitation and increasing temperatures during the warmest months of the year have significantly altered the landscape and the local biological communities. Drought is now more common and more severe than at any time in the past century. Compared with 16 years ago, the number of permanently dry ponds in northern Yellowstone has increased 4-fold. Of the ponds that remain, the proportion supporting amphibians has declined significantly, as has the number of species found in each location. Our results indicate that climatic warming already has disrupted one of the best-protected ecosystems on our planet and that current assessments of species' vulnerability do not adequately consider such impacts.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.

Flow chart of global warming impacts on amphibian populations. These mechanisms are affecting amphibian populations worldwide and in particular within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Solid lines denote clearly established relationships; see introduction for details and citations.

Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.

Annual PHDI of the Yellowstone Drainage region between 1895 and 2007 (25). Values above zero indicate a wet year, and values below zero indicate drought conditions. Best fit linear model of PHDI values (not shown) has slope = −0.057, adjusted R2 = 0.33, and P ≪ 0.001.

Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.

Time series of wetland probability surfaces of 20 of the 49 observed pond locations (red circles) in the Lamar Valley study area. Probabilities smoothed for display by cubic convolution given original pixel size of 30 m. Lakes are light blue; black polygons show the Lamar River.

Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.

Proportions of different categories of wetland probability in 500-m buffer zones around 49 current and former pond locations in northern Yellowstone National Park for 13 years between 1988–2008.

Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.

Changes in species richness between 1992–1993 and 2006–2007. The graph shows number of locations containing 0, or at least 1, 2, 3, or 4 species of amphibians in 1992–1993 and 2006–2008. Of the 21 ponds lacking amphibians in 2006–2008, 11 were dry all 3 years. Changes in pond richness are highly significant (Paired t test: t = 5.6848, P = 1.214E-06).

Fig. 6.
Fig. 6.

Number of populations of each species present in 42 Yellowstone ponds during at least 1 year during 1992–1993 or 2006–2008. AT, Ambystoma tigrinum; BB, Bufo boreas; PT, Pseudacris triseriata; RL, Rana luteiventris. Asterisks denote statistical significance, determined by McNemar's Test (P <0.01).

Comment in

  • Amphibian decline in Yellowstone National Park.

    Patla DA, Peterson CR, Corn PS. Patla DA, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Mar 3;106(9):E22; author reply E23. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0812670106. Epub 2009 Feb 24. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009. PMID: 19240209 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

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