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- Title
OPTICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NATURAL WATERS PROTECT AMPHIBIANS FROM UV-B IN THE U.S. PACIFIC NORTHWEST.
- Authors
Palen, Wendy J.; Schindler, Daniel E.; Adams, Michael J.; Pearl, Christopher A.; Bury, R. Bruce; Diamond, Stephen A.
- Abstract
Increased exposure to ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation has been proposed as a major environmental stressor leading to global, amphibian declines. Prior experimental evidence from the U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW) indicating the acute embryonic sensitivity of at least four amphibian species to UV-B has been central to the literature about amphibian decline. However, these results have not been expanded to address population-scale effects and natural landscape variation in UV-B transparency of water at amphibian breeding sites: both necessary links to assess the importance of UV-B for amphibian declines. We quantified the UV-B transparency of 136 potential amphibian breeding sites to establish the pattern of UV-B exposure across two montane regions in the PNW. Our data suggest that 85% of sites are naturally protected by dissolved organic matter in pond water, and that only a fraction of breeding, sites are expected to experience UV-B intensities exceeding levels associated with elevated egg mortality. Thus, the spectral characteristics of natural waters likely mediate the physiological effects of UV-B on amphibian eggs in all but the clearest waters. These data imply that UV-B is unlikely to cause broad amphibian declines across the landscape of the American Northwest.
- Subjects
UNITED States; WATER chemistry; AMPHIBIANS; AMBYSTOMA
- Publication
Ecology, 2002, Vol 83, Issue 11, p2951
- ISSN
0012-9658
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1890/0012-9658(2002)083[2951:OCONWP]2.0.CO;2