Extinction in Our Times Global Amphibian Decline

by Collins, James P.; Crump, Martha L.; Lovejoy III, Thomas E.

• ISBN13: 9780195316940
• ISBN10: 0195316940
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-07-07
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

For over 350 million years, thousands of species of amphibians have lived on earth, but since the 1990s they have been disappearing at an alarming rate, in many cases quite suddenly and mysteriously. What is causing these extinctions? What role do human actions play in them? What do they tellus about the overall state of biodiversity on the planet? In Extinction in Our Times, James Collins and Martha Crump explore these pressing questions and many others as they document the first modern extinction event across an entire vertebrate class, using global examples that range from the SierraNevada of California to the rainforests of Costa Rica and the Mediterranean coast of North Africa. Joining scientific rigor and vivid storytelling, this book is the first to use amphibian decline as a lens through which to see more clearly the larger story of climate change, conservation ofbiodiversity, and a host of profoundly important ecological, evolutionary, ethical, philosophical, and sociological issues.

Author Biography

James P. Collins is Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.
Martha L. Crump is Adjunct Professor of Biology at Northern Arizona University and is an active conservationist.

Table of Contents

The fifth inhabitant of Mexico	p. ix
Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xv
Acknowledgments	p. xix
Declining Amphibian Populations and the Biodiversity Crisis	p. 1
Rallying Around the Issue of Amphibian Declines	p. 27
Challenges, Correlates, and Hypotheses	p. 42
Introduced Species, Commerce, and Land Use Change	p. 59
Contaminants, Global Change, and Emerging Infectious Diseases	p. 88
Unraveling the Mystery	p. 123
Amphibian Chytrid Fungus as a Cause of Declines and Extinctions	p. 159
New Approaches to Doing Science and Conservation	p. 175
Science Policy and Reacting to a Challenge	p. 184
Leaping between Mysteries	p. 196
Notes	p. 207
References	p. 231
General Index	p. 259
Species Index	p. 269
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