🚀 go-pugleaf

Robert Granholm (granholm@direct.ca) wrote:
: In the April 95 edition of Scientific American, the following is noted from 'The Puzzle of
: Declining Amphibians'

: The authors (Andrew Blaustein, Oregon State University, and David Wake, UC Berkeley) 
: evaluated the reasons behind a the decline in frog populations in various US 
: locations. They suspected that stratospheric ozone depletion was a reason for 
: the observed declines:

: "Scientists in several disciplines documented a decrease in the stratospheric ozone
:  shield that blocks most UV radiation from reaching the ground. These 
: observations lead Blaustein and his co-workers to wonder whether increased 
: exposure to UV radiation could explain the reproductive problems they had 
: seen. They thought it might why many of the amphibian species known to be in 
: decline were mountian dwellers that lay their eggs in open, often shallow 
: waters. Such eggs undergo prolonged exposure to UV radiation that passes 
: through the ozone sheild."

Please let us know if there is more than one recording of an
increase in UV at ground level under water where the frogs lay
their eggs?  What is the sensitivity of frog eggs, in water, to
UV radiation?  How was other possible reasons (increased predation,
percipitation variations, etc.) accounted for?

I stopped reading Scientific American some time back.  Even though
I generally enjoyed some of the magazine, many of the articles
were insufficiently entertaining as science fiction, and  not
persuasive as science.

[deleted]

Regards, Harold