SOURCE: Eureka Alert and Wiley Online Library
DATE: September 12, 2018
SNIP: Global warming could lead to the extinction of up to 10% of frog and toad species endemic to Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest biome within about the next 50 years. The temperature and precipitation regimes predicted to occur between 2050 and 2070 will be lethal for species that are less well adapted to climate variation and inhabit certain areas of the Atlantic Rainforest.
This is one of the findings of a study that analyzes the present and future distribution of anurans (tailless amphibians, i.e., frogs and toads) in Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest and Cerrado (savanna) biomes in the context of climate change due to continuous global warming.
“The first expected impact of climate change on anuran amphibians in the Atlantic Rainforest and Cerrado is the extinction of 42 species due to the complete loss of the areas with favorable climate conditions between 2050 and 2070,” Tiago da Silveira Vasconcelos, a researcher at São Paulo State University’s School of Sciences, said.