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Brief Communication Arising
Nature 447, E3-E4 (31 May 2007) | doi:10.1038/nature05940; Received 13 February 2007; Accepted 10 May 2007; Published online 30 May 2007
Ecology: Global warming and amphibian losses
Ross A. Alford1, Kay S. Bradfield1,2 & Stephen J. Richards1,3
Abstract
Arising from: J. A. Pounds et al. Nature 439, 161–167 (2006); Pounds et al. reply
Is global warming contributing to amphibian declines and extinctions by promoting outbreaks of the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis? Analysing patterns from the American tropics, Pounds et al.1 envisage a process in which a single warm year triggers die-offs in a particular area (for instance, 1987 in the case of Monteverde, Costa Rica). However, we show here that populations of two frog species in the Australian tropics experienced increasing developmental instability, which is evidence of stress2, 3, 4, at least two years before they showed chytrid-related declines. Because the working model of Pounds et al. is incomplete, their test of the climate-linked epidemic hypothesis could be inconclusive.
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