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What is the Anthropocene?

The Anthropocene is an unofficial, but widely used, term to describe the current period of geological time [1]. It is termed such, due to the unprecedented human-made (anthropogenic – hence Anthropocene) changes to the world around us [1]. Some of these changes are intentional, such as urbanisation. And some changes are (probably) unintentional, such as climate change. The scientifically accepted term for the current geological epoch is ‘Holocene’, but the term ‘Anthropocene’ was coined to draw focus to the overriding influence that humans are having on Earth’s systems [2].

 

Definitions of the Anthropocene vary wildly. From ~15,000 years ago when humans were first moving away from pastoralism, to 1945 and the green revolution [3]. However, most sources place it beginning at around ~1800, when the industrial revolution began [4,5]. We are in the Anthropocene, the impacts of which are hitting biodiversity the hardest.

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So?

The Anthropocene has meant unprecedented changes in the biophysical aspects of the globe; most notably global climate change and species loss [2,7]. The extinction rate is now 100-1000 times the background extinction rate [8,9]. We are said to be losing 11,000-58,000 species a year [7].

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​Why Amphibians?

Around 40% of all known amphibian species are threatened, this number could be higher if we knew how many went undiscovered [10]. Amphibians are an often-overlooked group which is very sensitive to environmental change, whether they be from the climate or human-induced habitat changes [11,13,15]. This sensitivity links into the belief that amphibians act as ecological indicators [12,14,16]. Amphibians also play a key role in ecosystem services [17–19].

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This site:

The resource provided here helps to visualise the scale of the we problem face. This site covers a brief look into the future, at some of the amphibian species that, without immediate proper management and intervention, are on the precipice of extinction. The species were chosen from the IUCN Red List [10], and is not an exhaustive list. Species were chosen at random from the list available. The number of species entries per continent is proportional to the number of ‘Vulnerable’, ‘Endangered’, and ‘Critically Endangered’ amphibian species found in the wild each continent.

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You can find these species sorted by continent via the map or sorted by threat type in the pond!

 

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References:

[1] Whitmee, S., Haines, A., Beyrer, C., Boltz, F., Capon, A.G., Dias, B.F. de S., Ezeh, A., Frumkin, H., Gong, P., Head, P., et al. (2016). Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch: report of The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on planetary health. Lancet 62, 543–548.

[2] Steffen, W., Crutzen, P.J., and McNeill, J.R. (2007). The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature. AMBIO A J. Hum. Environ. 36, 614–621.

[3] Steffen, W., Broadgate, W., Deutsch, L., Gaffney, O., and Ludwig, C. (2015). The trajectory of the anthropocene: The great acceleration. Anthr. Rev. 2, 81–98.

[4] Lewis, S.L., and Maslin, M.A. (2015). Defining the Anthropocene. Nature 519, 171–180. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14258.

[5] Steffen, W., Grinevald, J., Crutzen, P., and Mcneill, J. (2011). The anthropocene: Conceptual and historical perspectives. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. A Math. Phys. Eng. Sci. 369, 842–867.

[6] Svenning, J.-C., Pedersen, P.B.M., Donlan, C.J., Ejrnæs, R., Faurby, S., Galetti, M., Hansen, D.M., Sandel, B., Sandom, C.J., Terborgh, J.W., et al. (2016). Science for a wilder Anthropocene: Synthesis and future directions for trophic rewilding research. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 113, 898–906.

[7] Jennings, E., Dirzo, R., Young, H.S., Galetti, M., Isaac, N.J.B., and Collen, B. (2005). Defaunation in the Anthropocene. Science (80-. ). 345, 401–406.

[8] Ceballos, G., Ehrlich, P.R., Barnosky, A.D., García, A., Pringle, R.M., and Palmer, T.M. (2015). Accelerated modern human – induced species losses : Entering the sixth mass extinction. 9–13.

[9] Wagler, R. (2011). The Anthropocene Mass Extinction: An Emerging Curriculum Theme for Science Educators. Am. Biol. Teach. 73, 78–83.

[10] IUCN (2019). Red List. [ONLINE]. Available at: https://www.iucnredlist.org/. Accessed: 05/5/2019.

[11] Kerby, J.L., Richards-Hrdlicka, K.L., Storfer, A., and Skelly, D.K. (2010). An examination of amphibian sensitivity to environmental contaminants: Are amphibians poor canaries? Ecol. Lett. 13, 60–67.

[12] Collins, J.P., and Storfer, A. (2003). Global amphibian declines: sorting the hypotheses. Divers. Distrib., 89–98.

[13] Snodgrass, J.W., Casey, R.E., Joseph, D., and Simon, J.A. (2008). Microcosm investigations of stormwater pond sediment toxicity to embryonic and larval amphibians: Variation in sensitivity among species. Environ. Pollut. 154, 291–297.

[14] Welsh, H.H., and Ollivier, L.M. (1998). Stream amphibians as indicators of ecosystem stress: A case study from California’s redwoods. Ecol. Appl. 8, 1118–1132.

[15] Hager, H.A. (1998). Area-sensitivity of reptiles and amphibians: are there indicator species for habitat fragmentation? Ecoscience 5, 139–147.

[16] Pollet, I., and Bendell-Young, L.L. (2012). Amphibians as indicators of wetland quality in wetlands formed from oil sands effluent. Environ. Pollut. 167, 178–83.

[17] Hocking, D.J., and Babbitt, K.J. (2014). AMPHIBIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECOSYSTEM SERVICES. 9.

[18] Davic, R.D., and Welsh, H.H. (2004). On the Ecological Roles of Salamanders. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 35, 405–434.

[19] Valencia-Aguilar, A., Cortés-Gómez, A.M., and Ruiz-Agudelo, C.A. (2013). Ecosystem services provided by amphibians and reptiles in Neotropical ecosystems. Int. J. Biodivers. Sci. Ecosyst. Serv. Manag. 9, 257–272.

Photos: unsplash.com

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