Amphibian Declines - by Michael Lannoo (Hardcover)

About the Book

The recent, sudden and dramatic decline in the abundance of amphibians is a world-wide environmental crisis. The cause of this decline is not known but many possibilities are reviewed in this mammoth 1000 page tome. This book describes in exhaustive and comprehensive detail the demise of amphibians thoroughout the United States. This will THE boook describing, in species by species detail, the impending extinction of amphibians.

Book Synopsis

This benchmark volume documents in comprehensive detail a major environmental crisis: rapidly declining amphibian populations and the disturbing developmental problems that are increasingly prevalent within many amphibian species. Horror stories on this topic have been featured in the scientific and popular press over the past fifteen years, invariably asking what amphibian declines are telling us about the state of the environment. Are declines harbingers of devastated ecosystems or simply weird reflections of a peculiar amphibian world?

This compendium-presenting new data, reviews of current literature, and comprehensive species accounts-reinforces what scientists have begun to suspect, that amphibians are a lens through which the state of the environment can be viewed more clearly. And, that the view is alarming and presages serious concerns for all life, including that of our own species.

The first part of this work consists of more than fifty essays covering topics from the causes of declines to conservation, surveys and monitoring, and education. The second part consists of species accounts describing the life history and natural history of every known amphibian species in the United States.

Review Quotes

"An extraordinary book based on the experience of an impressive team of specialists on amphibian declines and conservation."-- "Copeia" (1/1/2008 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Michael Lannoo is Professor at the Muncie Center for Medical Education, Indiana University School of Medicine. He is author of Status and Conservation of Midwestern Amphibians (1998) and Okoboji Wetlands: A Lesson in Natural History (1996). In 2001, he was awarded the Parker/Gentry Award for Conservation Biology by The Field Museum of Natural History.