Climate change is killing off frog
The periodic drying out of high-elevation lakes as a result of climate change is leading to the extinction of the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Herpetological Conservation and Biology.
The frogs need two to four years of uninterrupted water to complete their maturation, so repeated tadpole mortality from lakes drying up in the summer leads to population decline, the researchers said.
The range of the frog, which lives in lakes and slow-moving streams at altitudes of 4,500 to 12,000 feet, has decreased more than 80% in the last 90 years, they said.
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