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.
