A new paper published by Mo Ryan and colleagues in Frontiers of Ecology and the Environment proposes a hypothesis for how climate warming in lakes and ponds of the mountains of the US Pacific Northwest may be adding insult to a century of injury for native amphibians. Non-native trout were widely introduced throughout the Mountain West beginning around the turn of the Century, but especially by air after WWII. The large lakes that have self-sustaining populations of non-native trout excluding most amphibians, which happen to also be the most climate resistant habitats in these mountain regions. Now throw in climate-induced drying of the small wetlands and ponds that make up the majority of these species current habitat, and you have a double-whammy, otherwise known as the “climate squeeze”. Click here to read more about it.
Palen Lab 