Saturday March 18, 2023 | 10:00 a.m.
More than 500 years ago, the axolotl or axolotl was considered by the Aztec community as “a water monster”. When it reaches adulthood, this species of amphibian measures 23 centimeters in length on average and has the capacity to regenerate its amputated limbs and other organs and tissues. However, the axolotl, which lives mainly in Mexico, is critically endangered.
The axolotl is not the only species of amphibian that may soon disappear. A new international study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, revealed that more than 300 species of amphibians and 500 reptiles could become extinct due to climate change over the course of the current century.
The research was led by Chunrong Mi and Weiguo Du, from the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and included the collaboration of scientists from Israel, the Czech Republic, Kenya, Belgium, New Zealand, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Iran , Cameroon, Australia, United States, Germany, Ecuador, Brazil, and Argentina.
They didn’t just make the prediction based on available data on species populations. They also evaluated and called attention to the importance of actually creating or implementing (and not only remaining on paper) more natural protected areas. These measures will be key to saving amphibian and reptile species as well as helping to protect ecosystems.
“We have collated the distribution data of more than 14,000 species of amphibians and reptiles to carry out a global evaluation of the conservation effectiveness of protected natural areas through species distribution models,” Luciano Avila, a researcher at the Herpetology Group, told Infobae. Patagonia and director of the Patagonian Institute for the Study of Continental Ecosystems (IPEEC-Conicet) in Puerto Madryn, Argentina
“Our analysis revealed that more than 91% of amphibian and reptile species are currently distributed in protected areas, and that this proportion will remain unchanged under future climate change,” he clarified.
However, more than 7.8% of species are currently outside protected areas, and large spatial conservation gaps remain, mainly in tropical and subtropical moist forests, and in low-income countries.
Being outside protected areas, these species (300 amphibian and 500 reptile species) are in danger. “Our study underscores the importance of protected areas as refuge for amphibians and reptiles in the face of climate change and suggests ways to optimize protected areas to better conserve biodiversity around the world,” he stressed.
They also identified large regions where there are no protected areas that protect amphibians and reptiles today, particularly in Central America, the Tropical Andes, northern and southern South America, southern and western Africa, western India, southwest and southeast China, Southeast Asia, and North and Southeast Australia. Large gaps occur in some countries, such as Canada and the United States, despite the fact that they have a very large and old system of protected areas, according to the researcher.
At the level of Latin American countries, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil are the countries that have the most problems protecting their amphibian and reptile species within protected areas.
“In the case of Argentina, the country has large regions without protection for amphibians, and some large ecoregions such as the Patagonian Steppe, Andes and Monte lack sufficient protection for reptiles,” he said.
To make the forecast and recommendations, they made a global evaluation of the effectiveness of protected areas in the conservation of amphibians and reptiles. They carried it out through species distribution models.
“Species distribution models are widely used to quantify species responses under climate change. They allow the development of robust predictions of geographic distribution change of species, including future predictions,” he commented.
Such studies had been done before on smaller scales and not for everyone. Therefore, “our work published in Nature Communications would be the first attempt on a global scale with its limitations, successes and failures, but as a starting point to refine the studies and continue collecting biodiversity information,” said the scientist.
In addition to climate change, other factors also affect the group of animals they studied. Human beings have made enormous changes in land use, with deforestation or agricultural activities, and have introduced (intentionally or not) species from other regions of the world, which can become invasive and harm native ones.
Climate change affects reptiles and amphibians both directly and indirectly. For example, it increases the susceptibility of animals to disease. In the case of the axolotl or axolotl of Mexico, their populations were reduced from the growth of cities.
“They were affected by contamination from agriculture and industry, the introduction of Tilapia -a freshwater fish- that eats the juvenile axolotls, and competes for food with the adults. It survives as a pet, but in the wild it is highly threatened,” Avila said.
The international study was not done just to be considered as another scientific publication. International, national, provincial, municipal officials, environmentalists, and other social actors could use it to act and change the fate of animals, which play crucial roles in ecosystems. For example, they transfer nutrients from aquatic to terrestrial environments and control insect pests.
Its disappearance could favor the increase in the populations of insects that transmit diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever, which affect humans.
“Protected areas are the cornerstone for biodiversity conservation,” Avila said. Ideally, they should cover the largest number of species of organisms to guarantee adequate conservation. In addition, they should be interconnected to guarantee gene flow and the exchange of populations of the species, ”she stressed.
They are a fundamental strategy -he emphasized- for “cultural conservation and provide essential ecosystem goods and services for society and life in general.”
Fundamentally -the scientist remarked- it should be guaranteed “that they are real protected areas and not just administrative names on paper, which do not fulfill any function in the conservation of the species because they do not have management plans, adequately trained personnel, equipment, and advice scientist”.
Another measure is to pay more attention to the sale of animals. In dialogue with Infobae, another co-author of the study, Santiago Ron, from the Museum of Zoology of the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, of the Catholic University of Ecuador, in Quito, warned that “in Latin America there are still many species unknown to science. Those species may be threatened. But if you don’t know about their existence, you can’t protect them.”
Both legal and illegal international trade in amphibians and reptiles should be “prohibited,” said Ron, who is a lead teacher and curator. In the case of amphibians, one of the main threats “has been the spread of diseases on a global scale, something similar to what happened with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in humans.”
