United States
£ GBP
Amphibian species around the world are unusually vulnerable to a variety of threats, by no means all of which are properly understood. Volume 11 in this major series is published in parts devoted to the causes of amphibian decline and to conservation measures in regions of the world. This volume, Part 4 in the series, is concerned with Southern Europe (Italy, Malta, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Cyprus).
Each chapter has been written by experts from each country, describing the ecological background and the conservation status of affected species, with an emphasis on native species. As well as infectious diseases and parasites, threats take the form of introduced and invasive species, pollution, destruction and alteration of habitat, and climatic change. These are discussed as they affect each species. All these countries have monitoring schemes and conservation programs, whose origins and activities are described. Recommendations for action are also made.
Edited by leading scholars in the field, Volume 11, when complete, will provide a definitive survey of the amphibian predicament and a stimulus to further research with the objective of arresting the global decline of an entire class of animal.
"This collection is a welcome contribution to help balance the dominance of current northern research output from North America. They provide additional and broader context to the perspective of the problem and comparison of the study approaches underway in a different continent. Although the western and eastern northern continents have no amphibian species in common, they share many similar genera and habitats available to them. Not surprisingly the most dominant threats to amphibians are common to both: habitat loss due to human activities, over harvest, and introduced species. Increasingly, the chytrid fungus is being detected, likely spread by human introductions from contaminated areas. Even in relatively lesser developed countries, highway mortality and poaching are also concerns. Present ongoing studies will at least provide a baseline for future measurement of the success, or lack of it, of current conservation measures that are being attempted to assure a sample of the biodiversity of their region survives." --Francis R Cook, The Canadian Field Naturalist
"This book very usefully compiles under a single cover a large body of information that would otherwise be widely dispersed between specialist journals and regional literature." --Richard A. Griffiths, Herpetological Review
