Mar
Global Warming not to blame for toad extinction
From a Columbia University press release, here’s a case where the early speculation of science was wrong. Originally global warming was blamed, but it turns out to be El Niño helping along an already established pathogen.
El Niño and a pathogen killed Costa Rican toad, study finds
Challenges evidence that global warming was the cause
The Monteverde golden toad disappeared from Costa Rica Pacific coastal forest in the late 1980s. Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Scientists broadly agree that global warming may threaten the survival of many plant and animal species; but global warming did not kill the Monteverde golden toad, an often cited example of climate-triggered extinction, says a new study. The toad vanished from Costa Rica’s Pacific coastal-mountain cloud forest in the late 1980s, the apparent victim of a pathogen outbreak that has wiped out dozens of other amphibians in the Americas. Many researchers have linked outbreaks of the deadly chytrid fungus to climate change, but the new study asserts that the weather patterns, at Monteverde at least, were not out of the ordinary.
Continue reading at Watts Up With That
The applicable phrase is “lack of basic quarantine procedures”. Its pretty much as simple as that.
Whether it was brought in, or has been periodically wiping out isolated toad populations for yonks, the problem was the chytrid fungus was spread from colony to colony, and then around the world, by researchers who failed to take basic quarantine precautions. Even when they washed their clothes, theirs boots, belts, hats etc had the spores. They drove from one colony to the next without steam-cleaning their vehicles.
Its basic and fundamental: if a population of something, anything, gets mysteriously wiped out, and you go to research the cause, assume it is something contagious before you tromp off to hitherto unaffected colonies. Apply quarantine procedures before going anywhere else.
The tragic fact is these clowns were so convinced global warming was cause, in the absence of any proof, they took no precautions, and spread the chytrid fungus around the world. Very simply there is no place for idealology when it comes to this type of situation.