Wiped Out

            In a Panama region, thirty amphibian species are extinct. In that thirty species, five were extinct before they were formally identified by scientists. The chytrid fungus is the cause of the extinction of these amphibian species. It has caused major population declines in Central and South America, and also Australia after the late 1980s. The chytrid fungus acts rapidly on the amphibian, causing scientists to be unable to track the fungus' effects. It might be expected that after an epidemic, the specie can simply reproduce and raise the population size higher, but that is not the case. An experiment in Costa Rica has shown that frogs don't bounce back and raise their population after a chytrid wave comes through, making the risk of being extinct even higher.

This is related to biology concepts because if more amphibian species are wiped out because of the chytrid fungus, then it will affect food chains and the ecosystem. An ecosystem may collapse if certain species are eliminated. In food chains, certain animals that feed on these extinct amphibians may starve and die too. If that happens, more species will be affected, and more species will be at risk of extinction.

            People should be worried about this epidemic because it cause drastic and deadly effects on other organisms that they depend on. The extinction of a specie will affect other species, humans being part of it. This article makes people more aware of the problem, which could eventually help us come up with a solution to help out these amphibians.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/07/100720-amphibians-lost-species-extinct-panama-science-environment/