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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Survival At The Summits: Amphibian Responses To Thermal Extremes, Disease, And Rapid Climate Change In The High Tropical Andes, Kelsey E. Reider
Survival At The Summits: Amphibian Responses To Thermal Extremes, Disease, And Rapid Climate Change In The High Tropical Andes, Kelsey E. Reider
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Understanding biological responses to climate change is a primary concern in conservation biology. Of the ecosystems being rapidly impacted by climate change, those in the high-elevation tropics are among the most poorly studied. The tropical Andean biosphere includes record elevations above 5000 meters, where extreme environmental conditions challenge many organisms. In the Cordillera Vilcanota of southern Peru, frogs including Pleurodema marmoratum and Telmatobius marmoratus have expanded their ranges to 5244 – 5400 m into habitats created by glacial recession, making them among the highest recorded amphibians on Earth. To understand how hydrologic alterations from loss of glacial meltwater and climatic …