Common pesticides may be cause of frog deaths
New research indicates that frequently used pesticides, including types that were once thought to be relatively benign, make be linked to the widespread disappearance of California frog populations. A researcher at California State University, Sacramento has found evidence that frog declines are associated with upwind pesticide use.
Sacramento State environmental studies professor Carlos Davidson says there is a strong association between upwind pesticide use and declines in four frog species: the red-legged frog, the mountain yellow-legged frog, the foothill yellow-legged frog and the Cascades frog. And the declines were most strongly associated with the use of cholinesterase-inhibiting pesticides, which include many of today's most heavily used pesticides. Davidson's findings appear in the December issue of the Journal of Ecological Applications.