Warming Causing Sharp Drop In Yellowstone Park Amphibians, Study Says

Rising temperatures and persistent drought are drying out the U.S.’s renowned Yellowstone National Park, causing a steep decline in frogs, salamanders, and toads, according to a new study. Stanford University scientists found a four-fold increase in the number of dry ponds in the park’s lower Lamar Valley since 1992, leading to major declines in three of the park’s four amphibian species: the blotched tiger salamander, the boreal chorus frog, the Columbia spotted frog, and the boreal toad. Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists said that increasing temperatures, as well as decreasing rainfall and snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, have led to the worst drought in a century, a trend that is expected to continue as the American West warms. Said co-author Sarah McMenamin, “These ponds are changing, the environment is changing, the landscape is drying up, and the amphibians no longer have a place to breed.”