According to the second Global Amphibian Assessment, amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate class (40.7% of species are globally threatened). Around 8,011 species for the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species were evaluated.
According to the findings of the study, the updated Red List Index shows that the status of amphibians is deteriorating globally, particularly for salamanders and in the Neotropics. Moreover, Disease and habitat loss drove 91% of status deteriorations between 1980 and 2004.
The study has highlighted the ongoing and projected climate change as the biggest concern, because these drove 39% of status deteriorations since 2004, followed by habitat loss (37%).
The study highlighted that the greatest concentrations of threatened species are in the Caribbean islands, Mesoamerica, the Tropical Andes, the mountains and forests of western Cameroon and eastern Nigeria, Madagascar, the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka.
It also listed a few other notable concentrations of threatened species including- the Atlantic Forest biome of southern Brazil, the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania, central and southern China, and the southern Annamite Mountains of Vietnam.
This study, published in the journal Nature found, documented amphibian extinctions continue to increase: there were 23 by 1980, an additional 10 by 2004 and four more by 2022, for a total of 37. The most recent are Atelopus chiriquiensis and Taudactylus acutirostris, after rapid declines linked to chytridiomycosis in the 1990s, while Craugastor myllomyllon and Pseudoeurycea exspectata were last seen in the 1970s and are believed to be Extinct due to agricultural expansion.
While considering all the facts, the study has pointed out threats including- types of habitat loss and degradation, with the top three being agriculture (77% of species impacted), timber and plant harvesting (53%), and infrastructure development (40%). Climate change effects (29%) and disease (29%) are other common threat types.