Pesticides Used In California’s Central Valley Killing Frog Populations in Nearby Sierras
Scientists have determined the chemicals that make the Central Valley a rich agricultural region are responsible for frog deaths and tadpole abnormalities in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Just when it seems things can’t get much worse for our cold-blooded friends, researchers have added pesticides to the growing list of causes (such as habitat loss and chytrid fungus) for the massive worldwide decline in amphibian populations.
An article in today’s Central Valley Business Times says that zoologist Don Sparling and his team are continuing to build up a body of evidence that shows neurotoxin pesticides are making their way out of the valley’s farms and into the snow and streams where the frogs live and breed - with catastrophic consequences.
