Atmosphere and climate (original) (raw)

Remote Sensing for Ecology and Conservation

Abstract

There is a compelling need for environmental managers to consider atmospheric and climatic impacts upon the systems they manage. Pounds et al. (2006) linked dramatic losses of frog species in the neotropical genus Atelopus to regional climate effects on the temperature and relative humidity of highland forests. They related frog disappearances to tropical air temperatures, finding that ~80 percent of the missing species were lost after relatively warm years. The strength of association between warm years and disappearing frogs was independent of elevation, latitude, or range size. Such an association of extinctions with warmer years leads to a paradox: the believed cause of death of the Atelopine frogs is chytridiomycosis due to outbreaks of the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, but Batrachochytrium becomes more pathogenic at lower rather than higher temperatures. Pounds et al. posited a resolution to this paradox by coupling higher temperatures to increased evaporation rates r...

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