Chapter One
Repercussions of Global Change
JAMIE K. REASER AND ANDREW BLAUSTEIN
Living organisms must track the climate regimes appropriate for
their survival, adapt to new conditions, or go extinct. In the
1970s, climatologists began to warn that Earth would experience
rapid changes, induced in part by emissions of "greenhouse"
gases resulting from the burning of fossil fuels,
intensifying land use, and reduction in forest cover. They projected
that global temperatures would rise substantially in the
coming decades (e.g., Climate Resources Board, 1979). At approximately
the same time, climatologists also became concerned
that chloroflourocarborns (CFCs) and other commonly
used industrial gases were depleting the earth's protective ozone
layer, thereby increasing the amount of cell damaging ultraviolet
B (UV-B) radiation that reaches ground level (van der Leun
et al., 1998). Scientists projected that species might concurrently
respond to some of these global changes; ranges might
shift, natural communities might be disrupted, and mass extinctions
of some species might occur (e.g., Peters, 1988).
Amphibians warrant substanti ... read full excerpt from Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species ebook
