Salamander Engineering
Using sprinklers and “tadpole cups” to save amphibians in a warming world
Wind- and solar-powered water pumps. Sprinklers that spray a fine mist. Plastic pipes that create moist shelters. Busy beavers. These are just a few of the tools that conservationists could use to engineer a future for amphibians threatened by climate change, suggests a new survey. But if you’ve got better ideas, there is now a website where you can trade tips with other amphibian engineers.
The world’s frogs, toads and salamanders have already suffered massive losses due to habitat destruction, disease and pollution, and over-hunting. And climate change promises to make life even harder for many species. To head off disaster, many species will need help from humans, including “adaptive management” strategies that involve creating new habitats, building breeding sites and manipulating water flows. But understanding which “potentially valuable engineering solutions” will work – and which don’t – will be key, a multinational research team argues in the Journal of Applied Ecology.
To jump-start the conversation, the team reviews a slew of engineered solutions to amphibian conservation. In South Australia, for instance, biologists are using portable irrigation sprayers to create better habitat for a land-dwelling toadlet. In Central America, such artificial misting might also help cloud-forest “rain frogs” that experience population crashes during dry periods. Dropping some extra logs and leaf litter in degraded forests could help create moist, cozy hiding places for woodland salamanders and frogs. Even wooden boards and plastic plumbing pipes could do in a pinch.
To sustain breeding habitat for threatened species, researchers are building ponds, ditches and artificial wetlands. Sometimes, however, such projects can also aid unwanted species, such as predatory bullfrogs and fish, and “these non-target species can compromise the intended goals of the project.” Still, some nations have launched ambitious pond-building projects to aid rare species, including the Million Ponds Project in the United Kingdom and the “LIFE” project in nations along the eastern Baltic Sea. In wet tropical forests, nailing “tadpole-rearing cups” to trees can create attractive micro-pools for females looking for a good place to drop their eggs.
Sometimes, sustaining needed water flows can mean installing pumps and dams. In New Mexico, a system of earthen pools and steel livestock water tanks are kept full by wind- and sun-powered pumps – helping create a large, healthy population of threatened Chiricahua leopard frogs (Lithobates chiricahuensis). In Oregon, researchers are even trying to bring beavers back to some watersheds, since their dams help retain water.
“The challenge now,” the researchers conclude, “is to cooperate to test, monitor and iteratively update the growing store of effective management interventions.” And to spur innovation in the field of amphibian engineering, a group called Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC) has established a website – www.parcplace.org – share new and promising ideas. – David Malakoff | February 24, 2011
Source: Shoo, L., Olson, D., McMenamin, S., Murray, K., Van Sluys, M., Donnelly, M., Stratford, D., Terhivuo, J., Merino-Viteri, A., Herbert, S., Bishop, P., Corn, P., Dovey, L., Griffiths, R., Lowe, K., Mahony, M., McCallum, H., Shuker, J., Simpkins, C., Skerratt, L., Williams, S., & Hero, J. (2011). Engineering a future for amphibians under climate change Journal of Applied Ecology DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2010.01942.x
Image © James Deboer | Dreamstime.com
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