Climate and Extinction

Pounds et al[2] defined an "extinction" as the time when a frog species was last observed by professional teams of herpetologists working in these regions. Most extinctions (78% to 83%) occurred in years that were unusually warm across the tropics. The likelihood that this correlation arose by chance is less than one in a thousand. Moreover, the observed patterns of extinction vary with altitude -- as do the effects of climate change.