Number of Globally Threatened Amphibian Species by Freshwater Ecoregion

Number of globally threatened amphibian species, by freshwater ecoregion.

We generated the map of the number of freshwater amphibian species per ecoregion that are threatened with extinction using data from the Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA) (IUCN et al. 2006). The GAA assessed the conservation status of 5,918 amphibian species, and we analyzed the subset of 4,035 that depend on freshwater during some stage of their life cycle. Strictly arboreal species that do not require freshwater for their larval stage, species that develop directly from eggs without a larval stage, as well as few live-bearing species were excluded from this analysis. As of 2006, 1,356 freshwater amphibians were considered threatened. It is important to note, however, that for 1,427 amphibian species, there were insufficient data to assess their conservation status—these are classified by the GAA as “data deficient.” Therefore, these estimates for threat are conservative.

These data were derived by The Nature Conservancy, and were displayed in a map published in The Atlas of Global Conservation (Hoekstra et al., University of California Press, 2010). More information at http://nature.org/atlas.

Data derived from:
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Conservation International, and NatureServe. 2006. Global Amphibian Assessment. Available at www.iucnredlist.org/amphibians. Digital media.