Nutrient runoff deforming frogs (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The growing number of deformed frogs in recent years is caused at least partly by runoff from farming and ranching, new research indicates.

Nitrogen and phosphorous in the runoff fuel a cycle that results in a parasitic infection of tadpoles, resulting in loss of legs, extra legs or other deformities, according to researchers led by Pieter Johnson of the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Their findings are being published in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The deformed frogs have been a puzzle for more than a decade, since a group of Minnesota schoolchildren discovered a pond where more than half of the leopard frogs had missing or extra limbs. Suggested causes have ranged from pesticides and increased ultraviolet radiation to parasitic infection.

While parasite infection is now recognized as a major cause of such deformities, the environmental factors responsible for increases in parasite abundance had largely remained a mystery, Johnson said in a statement.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/25/deformed.frogs.ap/index.html

[rusty quoin]

1. Very bad news

a pond where more than half of the leopard frogs had missing or extra limbs.

[Buzz Clik]

2. Interesting. Amphibians are remarkably sensitive to aquatic pollutants.

The presence of the most widely used pesticide in the water, even at low quantities, has a profound impact on amphibian development.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. shameless self-kick for today's crowd -- this has been a puzzle for a decade or so. nt

[kestrel91316]

4. Same things that cause the ocean "dead zones":

"....Nitrogen and phosphorous in the runoff...."

This would be easily remedied by farmers pulling back on the fertilizer applications (they typically use more than needed to be "safe") and quit with the goddamned farming of every square inch of their land (strips of uncultivated native vegetation at the borders of the fields are a HUGE help in keeping runoff contained and allowing it to perk into the soils where it is rendered harmless).

But that would make too much sense. And cut into those all-important increases in quarterly profits.

Like Esau, we are selling our birthright for a "mess of pottage".