Spring peeper. Copyright J. Harding
Back to Chapter 4: Resource Risks
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Ozone standards exceeded in parks
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Researchers and land managers worldwide are concerned about severe and mostly unexplained declines of amphibian populations worldwide, including remote and pristine areas. Die-offs of large numbers of frogs, toads, and salamanders occurred in 1999 and 2000 throughout the United States, including national park units. In late June 2000, hundreds of juvenile spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) were found dead or dying at several known breeding ponds in Acadia National Park, Maine. The discovery came as a result of an inventory component of a research project funded by the Natural Resource Preservation Program. For the second consecutive year, frogs and salamanders also died in the springtime at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. A partner in the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory program made the initial discovery; the situation is now being closely monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey. In both these cases USGS scientists at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin, have identified iridoviruses as the probable culprit for the die-offs. Since 1996, when USGS scientists began investigating amphibian mortality, iridoviruses have been associated with numerous tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum) die-offs in the western United States and Canada. Little is known about the origin of iridoviral disease, its link with amphibian populations, and how it spreads. When the disease was discovered at Acadia, researchers, park staff, and others using or accessing multiple water bodies in one day were asked to clean field equipment and footwear with a mild bleach disinfectant at each site to prevent transmission of the virus to other wetlands. Researchers going into the field are being asked to look for symptoms and report anything suspicious. |
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This material is from Natural Resource Year in Review--2000, published by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, in May 2000 (publication D-1459)
/YearInReview/yir/yir2000/pages/04_resource_risks/04_07_sidebar_iridovirus.html
Last Updated: 06/17/2001
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