Amphibians

In the last two decades, declines in amphibian populations have been reported around the globe, citing loss of habitat, pollution, emergent disease and climate change as probable causes.

Amphibians are highly sensitive to climate change because they have porous skin and use small microhabitats. Increasing temperatures and shortened rainfall seasons have increased bacterial growth and disease transmission within amphibian groups. Hyper sensitivity to climatic variables makes amphibians an excellent indicator species for studying the effects of climate change. Osa Conservation’s amphibian monitoring program is generating baseline data related to species diversity and abundance in order to monitor these changes over time.