Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
GAD - Coggle Diagram
GAD
Education and Communication
Education only works for those who are already interested.
BUT encourages sustainable behavior, reduces vandalism/poaching of protected areas, influences policy and decisions, improves public support for conservation
Increase stakeholder engagement
Partnerships are necessary for long-term conservation and continued initiatives. Get landowners and townspeople involved.
Amphibians are often least preferred by people: associated with negative values, emotions, and wrong perceptions.
Direct threats of human attitudes and behavior: negative values and emotions lead to torturing and killing of amphibians, illegal consumption, removing amphibians from gardens.
Pathogen spread, trade, and invasive species are main threats worldwide.
Indirect threats of human attitudes and behavior: low likability= low conservation efforts and funding, small number of occurrence data compared to mammals and birds. poor representation in education and outreach, little public engagement.
People's attitudes and behavior toward amphibians depend on: cultural background, past experiences with amphibians, gender, knowledge about amphibians, education level.
Children that are not allowed to observe, play with, or go near amphibians are more likely to carry fear into adulthood.
PIE: Planning Implementation Evaluation. Planning includes identifying goals, audiences, and education strategies. Implementation is operation of activities. Monitoring and Evaluation is identifying results from successful activities and review areas for improvement. PIE is used to avoid targeting the wrong audiences and using inappropriate messages or medium.
Methods for collecting data for program evaluation: Interviews (to fully understand someone's impressions or experiences or learn more about their answers to questionnaires). Focus groups: (to explore a topic in depth through group discussion such as reactions to a group experience or suggestion, understanding common beliefs, etc.). Questionnaires (quickly and easily get lots of information from people in a non-threatening way). Observation (to gather accurate information about how a project actually operates, particularly about processes). Literature review (to gather information on the audience and issue. Identify what previous investigations found about the state of the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and attitudes of the intended audience with relation to the issue).
Strategic communication tools: mass media (social media and advertisements), interpretive/education media (exhibits, clubs, mail), events (presentations, workshops, field trips, community meetings), community or citizen science (iNaturalist etc.).
How should we communicate: Multiple formats (websites, outreach articles, apps, hands-on workshops, etc.). Information must be multidirectional. Translational ecology: ecologists, stakeholders, and decision-makers work collaboratively.
Barriers to communication: actionable science towards conservation does NOT always translate to conservation success. Decision-maker and researcher interaction is SO important.
Gaps in data and knowledge:
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) only has a small number of occurrence data, most of which is from museum collections, rather than observations from citizen scientists, compared to other taxons.
Actionable science: done with the needs of a specific end-user in mind.
Stakeholders: any community member, organization, or individual with a stake in the conservation issue or location of a conservation project.
Most knowledge on amphibians focus on frogs.
Amphibians are associated with negative values, emotions, and wrong perceptions. This info comes from folklore and superstitions.
Appropriate education and outreach:
encourages sustainable behavior
improves public support
improves compliance with environmental regulations
reduces vandalism
reduces poaching in protected areas
increases carrying capacities
Influences policies and decision-makers
Exploitation: the use of amphibians for the benefit of humans.
Trade and sustainable use: having no international trade reduces demand.
Challenges of international trade: no info on the volume of exploitation of non-CITIES species
No multi-language data collection system.
No public record of illegal amphibian trade.
Variable accuracy of species identification.
Large number of species categorized as "data deficient" by the IUCN Red List.
Shipments may say "non-CITIES amphibian" with only the genus.
Often the packages are not inspected.
One of the six main drivers of amphibian decline.
Purposes of amphibian exploitation: Local are for meat, medicine, education, and cultural reasons. International are for trade, meat, pets, pharmaceutical research and education.
Recommendations for sustainable amphibian trade: explore alternatives to frog consumption, conduct surveys in local markets, support population assessments, draft biosecurity policies to control disease spread.
Overexploitation: using amphibians to the point of diminished returns.
Frog populations at higher elevations (Nepal); slower metabolism, later sexual maturity, smaller clutch size, smaller breeding season.
Overexploitation, population decline, decreased predation of crop pests, increase use pesticides, positive feedback loop created.
Recommendations for Nepal: 1) Ban destructive collection practices that harm species and habitat. 2) enacting harvest seasons. 3) Catch limits. 4) Fines. 5) Replace real dissection with virtual programs. 6) increase information on species biology, ecology, harvest rates.
Types of uses for pet trade: Human consumption for food. Medicinal use. Pet trade. Cultural use. Educational use.
Spread of disease
The national and international trade in amphibians is the greatest source of global amphibian pathogen spread.
Chytrid and Rana virus are the most dangerous diseases spread through trade.
Bd grows in outer keratinized layers of the skin. It damages skin transport mechanisms and interferes with heart function.
They can survive over a month in underwater sediment.
Rana virus was first reported in the late 80s. Causes skin ulcers and internal bleeding. Often called the "red leg" disease.
Disease is a natural part of functioning ecosystems but INVASIVE pathogens in areas with native hosts is where problems occur.
Pathogens do not always cause declines.
Virulence: the degree to which a pathogenic organism can cause disease. Nonnative diseases tend to have greater virulence
Pathogens are always changing, each variation having different virulence.
Host range and susceptibility: some pathogens can infect hosts without causing disease ex) Bsal in some frogs. Animals not showing illness may still carry disease. Tolerance varies between life stages ex) juveniles are most susceptible to Bd, while larvae are most susceptible to Rana virus.
Dilution effect: where species vary in susceptibility to a pathogen, higher diversity leads to lower infection prevalence in hosts. Communities with many immune or resistant hosts cause a dilution effect.
Highly tolerant hosts (reservoir hosts) cause pathogens to build up and make their way to more susceptible hosts.
Environment: abiotic factors are temperature and water/humidity
Temp: Chytrid is an increased danger in cooler environments. Rana virus is an increased danger in warmer environments.
Biotic factors are natural predators: some microfauna prey on chytrid zoospores. Also, predation of Rana virus hosts.
Human dimensions: Trade and climate change.
Four factors: Pathogen, host, environment, and
Climate Change
Modern environmental stressors add to the problem and multiple stressors act simultaneously "synergies".
Immediate CC effects: more frequent and intense storms and flooding, more frequent and longer droughts, variation in extreme temperatures, longer heat waves and cold snaps.
Indirect effects of CC on amphibians:
smaller body size at metamorphosis
smaller body size at maturity
new species interactions
synergies with other extinction drivers/environmental stressors
lower reproductive success
Direct effects of CC on amphibians
higher metabolic rates
faster developmental rates
lower dissolved oxygen in aquatic habitats
Five amphibian species are Extinct or Extinct in the Wild mainly from CC.
Extinction risk is likely to rise with temperature
New species interactions spread disease and higher predation risk due to lack of experience with new species. Amphibians can actually track climate change by shifting altitudinal and longitudinal gradients to remain in a suitable microhabitat.
Amphibian management for CC includes providing ideal breeding, foraging, and dispersal environments, creation/retention of ponds as microhabitats, and relocation of individuals into ideal habitats.
Other conservation techniques: translocation, reintroduction, Captive rescue colonies, bio-banking, and head starting and relocation $.
Bio banking: cryogenically preserving DNA, blood, tissue, and/or reproductive cells for conservation.
The tropics hold the vast majority of amphibian species richness yet data from this area is lacking.
Tropical species are most vulnerable to the proximate effects of climate change; predator/prey relationships are more frequent.
Conservation planning
Endangered Species Act of 1973 prompted conservation plans for amphibians starting in the 80s.
These original action plans did not provide recovery criteria.
Amount of plans produced varies across geographic regions. Does NOT reflect species richness, number of threatened species, or size of region.
Important aspects for effective conservation plans:
1) Inclusion of stakeholders in the planning process
2) Consensus around goals, objectives, and actions
3) Utilization of scientific data to make decisions
4) Check points to enable adaptive management
5) Informing stakeholders about progress
6) Clear communication regarding outcome and how its determined
Levels of action plan:
IUCN ACAP (Global): guides conservation based on risk factors by identifying conservation needs across geographic and political boundaries (global)
National and Regional Plans: aim to establish priorities and determine what actions are most urgent on a regional or national scale.
Species Action: Efforts specific to a specific species, and who would be responsible for which actions, the time frame, and metrics for success.
Population viability analysis: simulation model that evaluates future population based off of current and future conditions. Results can be used to determine likelihood of extinction and identify conservation targets.
Challenges of planning:
Knowledge gaps
Lack of data
Amphibians are not valued
Planning is not valued
Limited funding
Disconnection between scientists and conservationists
Ecotoxicology
Types of chemical risks:
Industrial: flame retardants, chemicals used to make plastics, and metals/metalloids.
Agricultural: insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizers.
Residential: road salts, pharmaceutical and personal care products (ibuprofen, etc.)
Human population size and consumption drives the industrial, residential, and agricultural footprints on the landscape that contribute to the chemical contamination of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
Contaminants accumulate in water bodies which serve as exposure pathways for amphibians.
Depending on the pollutant, higher temperatures can either increase or decrease amphibian susceptibility to it.
Direct physiological effects of chemicals:
Stress hormones modulated
Altered cardiac function
Disruption of endocrine system
Immune system changes
DNA Damage
Mutation-based diseases
Altered metabolism
Carryover effects: when exposure early in life affects an individual's performance later in life. The consequences are long after exposure. Ex) contaminant exposure affecting metabolism and reproduction.
To understand the role contaminants play in global amphibian decline we must:
1) Focus on ecological consequences of contaminant exposure
2) Identify important factors (habitat modification, disease, climate change) that interact with contaminant exposure to impact traits associated with amphibian fitness.
Corticosterone is a biomarker for exposure to contaminants and the effect it has on amphibians.
Conservation strategies:
Terrestrial buffers around habitats
Minimize exposure to contaminants
Organic agricultural techniques; limit use of pesticides.
Reduce pollution in the residential and industrial sectors as well
The six main drivers of amphibian decline: overexploitation, habitat fragmentation/modification, pesticide use, pollution, invasive species introduction, and trade.
Species richness is number of different species. Species abundance is the number of individuals in a species. Relative abundance is how common a species is relative to other species in the location.
Species richness and relative abundance are considered when measuring species diversity.
Life history: an organism's pattern of survival and reproduction. Rates can be estimated across age classes.
Life history traits include growth rate, age and size at sexual maturity, reproduction schedule, number, size, and sex ratio of offspring.