James P Collins, Martha L Crump

Extinction in Our Times

Global Amphibian Decline

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

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 tell us 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 Sierra Nevada 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 of biodiversity, and a host of profoundly important ecological, evolutionary, ethical, philosophical, and sociological issues.

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Since the 1990s the extraordinary decline and extinction of amphibian populations worldwide has alarmed scientists because of the frequency of the losses, concern about the role amphibians might play as indicators of environmental deterioration, and growing evidence that frogs and salamanders disappeared without obvious causes in the midst of protected areas. Extinction in Our Times unravels the mystery of amphibian biodiversity loss by exploring alone and together possible causes such as commercial exploitation, competition and predation by exotic species, habitat loss, climate change, environmental toxins, and emerging infectious diseases.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Hurst & Co.
• Seitenzahl: 304
• Erscheinungstermin: 7. Juli 2009
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 242mm x 164mm x 29mm
• Gewicht: 565g
• ISBN-13: 9780195316940
• ISBN-10: 0195316940
• Artikelnr.: 23909028

Autorenporträt

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. Books by the same authors: Herpetology

Inhaltsangabe

Preface
1: Declining Amphibian Populations and the Biodiversity Crisis
2: Rallying Around the Issue of Amphibian Declines
3: Challenges, Correlates, and Hypotheses
4: Introduced Species, Commerce, and Land Use Change
5: Contaminants, Global Change, and Emerging Infectious Diseases
6: Unraveling the Mystery
7: Amphibian Chytrid Fungus as a Cause of Declines and Extinctions
8: How Can Science and Conservation Make a Difference?
9: Science Policy and Reacting to a Challenge
10: Leaping between Mysteries
Literature Cited