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Responding to a Global Problem Amphibian populations fluctuate in size (Pechmann et al., 1991; Alford and Richards, 1999), but around 1989, herpetologists became alarmed by reports that populations and even species were declining—some to extinction (Blaustein and Wake, 1990; Corn, 1994a; Bury et al., 1995; Pounds et al., 1997). By 1997, this problem led three of us ( J.P.C., A.S. and E.W.D.) to organize a workshop. This workshop, “Amphibian population dynamics: Is the threat of extinction increasing for amphibians?” was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and held in May 1998 in Washington, D.C. As a practical matter, we could not invite all researchers with an interest in this important problem. Therefore, we focused on investigators with diverse expertise in herpetology, ecology, infectious diseases, ecotoxicology, physiology, climate change, and science policy. We asked participants to address two questions that highlighted the central issues: (1) Is the threat of extinction increasing for amphibians? and (2) What response to evidence of amphibian declines is recommended? The goal of the meeting was to assess the evidence for amphibian declines, and, if warranted, to recommend a strategy for addressing the causes of the declines. All workshop participants agreed (Wake, 1998) that there is compelling evidence that during the last 20 years unusual and substantial declines have occurred in population sizes and numbers of populations of amphibians (see Appendix 6-A). Population declines were reported worldwide, but especially from a broad region of the Cordilleras of western North America , from southern Saskatchewan south to Costa Rica and western Panama, and at higher elevations from southeastern Australia to north Queensland (Richards et al., 1993; Laurance, 1996; Lips, 1998, 1999); research conducted after the workshop reinforces this conclusion (Houlahan et al., 2000). Workshop participants also agreed that declines could be traced to four main factors occurring alone, sequentially, or synergistically: habitat destruction, exotic species, disease, and anthropogenic environmental change due to toxic chemicals, ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation, or global climate change. The mechanisms by which habitat destruction or exotic species cause amphibian declines are straightforward—places where frogs and salamanders breed and grow are destroyed, or superior predators or competitors displace native amphibians. Many areas with declines are reserves that are protected from exotic species and habitat destruction, which suggests that these declines are caused by subtle, complex forces, such as pathogens or environmental alteration due to toxic chemicals, UV-B radiation , or global climate change. The complexity suggested that we needed one or more interdisciplinary research teams to study the interacting factors in multiple locations, which raised questions about how the research should be conducted. What is the best research strategy for understanding and perhaps mitigating amphibian declines? What is the role of individual -investigator research relative to multi-investigator, multi-disciplinary, and interdisciplinary research? How should the research community proceed? Two steps resulted from the initial workshop. The U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, proposed Step 1 at the Washington workshop: The federal, interagency Task Force on Amphibian Declines and Deformities (TADD, which has since been supplanted by the USGS’s Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative [ARMI]) was formed because of his concern about declining amphibian populations and the recommendations of workshop participants. TADD was established as a team effort to coordinate the research activities of diverse agencies . Step 2 involved understanding how multiple variables, especially pathogens and environmental change, affect amphibian populations; this would require an interdisciplinary, collaborative research program—“the interdisciplinary perspective that environmental problems axiomatically require” (Metzger and Zare, 1999, p. 642). Talking about interdisciplinary research and actually doing it is something else (Snieder, 2000)—interdisciplinary research is not easy. Participants in the Washington workshop realized that we needed a better understanding of the dimensions of the declining amphibian problem, and we also needed an opportunity to explore how we could meld the multiple talents of diverse investigators . NSF facilitated both of the objectives by funding two more workshops at the San Diego Zoo. At the first San Diego workshop we tackled the problem of disease; the focus of the second San Diego workshop was environmental change as a cause of amphibian deformities and, perhaps, declines. We sharpened research questions, identified collaborators, built a common vocabulary, learned techniques and concepts from 23 S I X Meeting the Challenge of Amphibian Declines with an Interdisciplinary Research Program JAMES P. COLLINS, NICHOLAS COHEN, ELIZABETH W. DAVIDSON, JOYCE E. LONGCORE, AND ANDREW STORFER disciplines other than our own, and identified investigators who found the research questions...

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