Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Climate Change Threatens Amphibians of the Cerrado

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 3 2011 (IPS) - Agriculture-driven deforestation, climate change and poor conservation policies are threatening the survival of amphibians in the Cerrado, a vast savanna region in central Brazil, according to a study conducted by the non-governmental organization Pequi – Research and Conservation in the Cerrado. The study evaluated the current degradation of the Cerrado biome and climate change trends up until 2050. The results revealed that the areas most favorable for the survival of amphibian species would be the most seriously degraded.

"The states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and southern Goiás comprise the area with the temperatures most suited to amphibians, but they are also at the greatest risk of destruction based on the current pattern of the expansion of the agricultural frontier," biologist Débora Leite Silvano, who headed up the research, told Tierramérica.

Due to this loss of their habitat, many of the 204 species of amphibians currently found in the Cerrado would be in danger of extinction, she added.