Charlotte Kamai, November 8th, 2011
“Bracing for a Bullfrog Invasion”
How Climate Change Affects Biodiversity
The purpose of my news report was to link the class’ current material about biodiversity to what we previously studied: climate change. I found out that climate change has begun to seriously alter the migration patterns of different animals throughout the world, which in turn affects many other species. The American Bullfrog is endemic to the US and Canada. As an amphibian it relies “on external temperatures, moisture levels, [and] rainfall to regulate [its] own conditions”. The article discusses how even the slightest of changes in the bullfrog’s environment, especially in terms of temperature, will cause the species to move. With recent climate change in North America, the bullfrog has already begun to move south and invade Argentina and Paraguay. This is not preferred in those areas, but the most recent predictions are even more frightening. They will soon enter parts of northern Brazil, southeastern Colombia, eastern Peru and southern Venezuela. The main concern about this is that the bullfrog will invade the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, “a biodiversity hotspot in tropical South America.” Bullfrogs are very adaptable creatures, so they thrive in almost every location. If they are allowed to live in the Atlantic Forest they will slowly push out the native species by causing new competition for resources, increasing predation (bullfrogs eat literally almost everything), and spreading new diseases. The bullfrog species will slowly take over and destroy the biodiversity of the area, possibly causing the extinction of hundreds of species that exist nowhere else in the world.
1. Would you suggest using resources to kill the frogs, or is that just a temporary fix to a larger problem?
2. Scientists suggest allocating money to study other species and where the climate might push them. Is this a useful way to spend money?
3. How important is this issue today? Should biodiversity hotspots be protected and other areas ignored?
4. Is maintaining biodiversity more or less important than bringing an end to climate change? Are they interconnected?
Additional Info:
This is also happening in the oceans; for 14 millions years king crabs lived in one part of the waters but recently over 1 million moved deep into the Antarctic shelf, destroying a lot of life. Scientists have also found that many different plant and animal species are actually moving away from the equator, at a rate of eight inches per hour. These show that the bullfrogs are not an isolated event.
Link to article:
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