Investing in amphibians means investing in the future of our planet

Let by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival Commission’s (IUCN) Amphibian Specialist Group, more than 100 researchers have reinvestigated the threat status of the World’s amphibian species. They classified more than 40% of all known species as threatened. Habitat destruction and degradation are still the most important threat factors, but the researchers also find that global change is becoming increasingly important in amphibian decline. Within amphibians, salamanders are the most threatened group and a new emerging disease could have devastating results for salamanders in Europe and the United States.

The study is based on a second global amphibian assessment, coordinated by the IUCN’s Amphibian Red List Authority. The assessment evaluated the extinction risk of more than 8,000 amphibian species from all over the world, including 2,286 species evaluated for the first time. More than 1,000 experts across the globe contributed their data and expertise. They found that two out of every five amphibian species (40%) are threatened with extinction.

Between 2004, the publication of the first global amphibian assessment, and 2022, a few critical threats have pushed more than 300 amphibians closer to extinction. Climate change was the primary threat for 39% of these species. Climate change is especially concerning for amphibians because they are particularly sensitive to changes in their environment. The number of species threatened by climate change is expected to rise as better data become available.

"As humans drive changes in the climate and to habitats, amphibians are becoming climate captives, unable to move very far to escape the climate change-induced increase in frequency and intensity of extreme heat, wildfires, drought and hurricanes," said Jennifer Luedtke Swandby, Re:wild manager of species partnerships, Red List Authority coordinator of the IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, and one of the lead authors of the study. "Our study shows that we cannot continue to underestimate this threat. Protecting and restoring forests is critical not only to safeguarding biodiversity, but also to tackling climate change."

Habitat destruction and degradation as the result of agriculture, infrastructure development and other industries is still the most common threat, according to the paper. Habitat destruction and degradation affect 93% of all threatened amphibian species. Expanded habitat and corridor protection in the places most important for amphibian diversity is going to continue to be critical. Disease caused by the chytrid fungus and overexploitation also continue to cause amphibian declines. Habitat destruction and degradation, disease, and overexploitation are all threats that are exacerbated by the effects of climate change.

The study also found that three out of every five salamander species (60%) are threatened with extinction primarily as the result of habitat destruction and climate change, making salamanders the world’s most threatened group of amphibians. A new deadly salamander fungus has been found in Asia and Europe, called Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal). "Bsal has already driven fire salamander populations in Belgium, the Netherlands and western Germany to or close to extinction", says Mark-Oliver Rödel, curator of amphibians and reptiles at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin and co-author of the study. "Currently we observe the disease to spread into southern Germany and further populations may become threatened by this disease".

The study provides an update to the first, 2004, global amphibian assessment, which revealed the unfolding amphibian crisis for the first time and established a baseline for monitoring trends and measuring conservation impact. According to this new study, nearly 41% of all amphibian species that have been assessed are currently globally threatened, considered critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable. This is compared to 26.5% of mammals, 21.4% of reptiles and 12.9% of birds.

Four amphibian species were documented as having gone extinct since 2004—the Chiriquí harlequin toad (Atelopus chiriquiensis) from Costa Rica, the sharp snouted day frog (Taudactylus acutirostris) from Australia, Craugastor myllomyllon and the Jalpa false brook salamander (Pseudoeurycea exspectata), both from Guatemala. Twenty-seven additional critically endangered species are considered possibly extinct, bringing the total to more than 160 critically endangered amphibians that are considered possibly extinct. However, the assessment also found that 120 species improved their Red List status since 1980. Of the 63 species that improved as the direct result of conservation action, most improved due to habitat protection and management.

Conservationists will use the information from this study to help inform a global conservation action plan, to prioritize conservation actions at the global level, to seek additional resources, and to influence policy that can help reverse the negative trend for amphibians. 

"Amphibians are disappearing faster than we can study them, but the list of reasons to protect them is long, including their role in medicine, pest control, alerting us to environmental conditions, and making the planet more beautiful," said Kelsey Neam, Re:wild species priorities and metrics coordinator and one of the lead authors of the Nature paper. "And while our paper focuses on the effects of climate change on amphibians, the reverse is also critically important: that the protection and restoration of amphibians is a solution to the climate crisis because of their key role in keeping carbon-storing ecosystems healthy. As a global community it is time to invest in the future of amphibians, which is an investment in the future of our planet."

Published in Nature.