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Researchers say the most diverse tropical areas are more at risk of losing frogs, toads, newts and salamanders

If the current rapid extermination of animals, plants and other species that really is the "sixth mass extinction" is the branch of the tree of life of amphibians is under drastic pruning .

Research is described as "terrible" by an independent expert, scientists predict the future of frogs, toads, newts and salamanders is even worse that environmentalists had made.

About half of amphibian species are declining, while a third is already in danger. But scientists now predict that the regions with a greater diversity of amphibian species are threatened more intense in the future.

And they warn that a triple threat can also cause people to fall faster than expected.

Like many creatures, amphibians have been hit hard by climate change and habitat loss. But they have also been decimated by the spread of the fungus chytridiomycosis, a deadly disease.

One third of the world's amphibians are in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. These include the frog Malagasy rainbow that lives in the rocky forests of Madagascar. Has the ability to swell in an attack and can climb vertical rock faces. It is located in an area of ??less than 100 square kilometers, is a target for the pet trade.

Giant Salamander of China is in danger of extinction. Most amphibian species, can reach over a meter long. Overexploitation of food resulted in a catastrophic fall in the last 30 years.

European species are also threatened. Scientists predict that climate change, habitat destruction and disease could lead to more than half of all European frogs, toads and newts to extinction within 40 years.

now the largest study of its kind found in areas where amphibian diversity is at its highest level is the greatest threat.

researchers led by Dr. Christian Hof, University of Copenhagen, computer modeling used to predict the impact of climate change, the effect of habitat loss and urbanization and agriculture, Finally, the fungal disease amphibian populations.

"What we are looking at climate change, for example, is that many tropical regions such as northern South America, the Andes and parts of Africa, will be very affected," Hof said. The team then compared the map the impact of the global distribution of more than 5500 species of amphibians.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, show that two thirds of the regions with the greatest diversity of salamanders and frogs are affected by one or more of these threats for 2080.

The scientists also found that some of the threats that overlap.

regions where amphibian populations are expected to suffer most from climate change tends to coincide with the areas that most could suffer habitat destruction. The fungal disease, however, was more isolated.

"What we did not really understand the mechanical interaction between them, as does the land use change or habitat fragmentation influence the potential responses of species to climate change "said Hof.

overlapping threats may mean that estimates of amphibian declines are too optimistic and that the population could decline even faster than previously thought.

Helen Meredith, amphibians conservation of the Zoological Society of London, said: "Looking to 2080, seems to be more extinctions of amphibian species, which is scary as to third of all amphibian species are threatened with extinction today.

Kihansi Spray Toad

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