Article Review - Tropical Lowland frogs at greater risk from climate warming than high-elevation species

A research published on April 6 by Rudolf von May and his colleagues began a new lead that the lowland amphibians are at risk from future global warming. The study that Rudolf von May and his colleagues worked on was on Peruvian frogs. Study shows that these types of frogs live in leaf litter and mosses in high elevation cloud forest between 10,480 and 11,250 feet. They collected data from related frog species in their elevation distribution and their tolerance to heat and cold temperatures. With their data they concluded that higher elevation frogs can tolerate temperatures better than low elevation frogs. Using Rudolf von May and colleagues study, ScienceDaily collaborated and idea stating that future climate warming is a big risk to lowland amphibians because the lowland amphibians will not be able to tolerate the heat change as much as high elevation amphibians. This research adds to our understanding of amphibians because we can understand that elevation has a big impact on amphibian temperature tolerance. I believe this is very important to understand because this is not just happening to amphibians in the Amazon but everywhere else in the world. We can use this study to and connect it to local species, especially here in the south. To my understand most of South Carolina is under sea level and more inland we travel the higher the elevation gets. Basically, using this study we can somewhat conclude that in the future, if the climate gets warmer, lower elevation amphibians and reptiles are at risk in surviving or reproducing because if they the temperature tolerance is out of their limits.



Source: University of Michigan
Link to website: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170407103546.htm
Website Cite: University of Michigan. (2017, April 7). Tropical lowland frogs at greater risk from climate warming than high-elevation species, study shows. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 10, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170407103546.htm


Journal Reference: 

1. Rudolf von May, Alessandro Catenazzi, Ammon Corl, Roy Santa-Cruz, Ana Carolina Carnaval, Craig Moritz. Divergence of thermal physiological traits in terrestrial breeding frogs along a tropical elevational gradient. Ecology and Evolution, 2017; DOI: 10.1002/ece3.2929