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Amphibians in a vise: Climate change robs frogs, salamanders of refuge

By Guest PostJune 1, 2014Environmentamphibians, aquatic species, climate change, dona sarkar, frogs, hackathon event, itast, refuge, salamanders, simon fraser university, tcells, university of washington, warming climate

By hightailing it to nearby ponds and shallow waterways, frogs and salamanders have – until now – had a way to evade exotic trout introduced to the West’s high-mountain lakes for recreational fishing.

A warming climate, however, will dry up some of the places where amphibians and their young have found refuge. Researchers in the May 1 issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment write about this challenge and a novel combination of tools that could help land managers, biologists, fishing enthusiasts and other citizens weigh where amphibians are in the most need of help and guide plans for possible fish removals from selected lakes. (more…)

Ribbeting Research

By Guest PostJuly 13, 2012Nature, Scienceacoustic difference, amphibians, amplexus, cocktail party problem, eardrum movement, eustachian tubes, female cope, frog ears, frogs, gray treefrog, hearing aids, jackhammer, mammalian ears, mammals, mark bee, mr right, study, university of minnesota, velocity

Studies of frogs may lead to better hearing aids

When Mark Bee talks to his 106-year-old grandmother alone, her two enormous hearing aids enable her to understand him well.

“But at a table at Thanksgiving, with everybody talking, the devices don’t do well,” says Bee, an associate professor of ecology, evolution and behavior at the University of Minnesota.

Her difficulty in a noisy situation is called the cocktail party problem, after the background babble that stymies many hearing-impaired people trying to pick out individual voices at a party. But in ponds all over the world, frogs handle a similar problem, and Bee hopes to learn enough about how they do it to put the principles to work helping people like his grandmother. (more…)

2 new frog species discovered in Panama’s fungal war zone

By Guest PostJuly 5, 20101 commentNatureand, Central Panama, chytridiomycosis, colombian border, darien province, deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, el cope, frogs, fungal disease, karen lips, omar torrijos national park, pacific coast, panama, panama amphibian rescue conservation project, pristimantis adnus, pristimantis educatoris, p_adnus

Trying to stay ahead of a deadly disease that has wiped out more than 100 species, scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute continue to discover new frog species in Panama: Pristimantis educatoris, from Omar Torrijos National Park, and P. adnus from Darien Province near the Colombian border.

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Tag Archives: frogs

Amphibians in a vise: Climate change robs frogs, salamanders of refuge

Ribbeting Research

2 new frog species discovered in Panama’s fungal war zone