Blue-spotted Salamander Amphibians A change in climate could impact timing: Do they come out of hibernation too soon? Does breeding stay with synch with the two sexes? Do wetlands fill too late or dry too early for tadpole development? Does warming impact cold adapted species, such as Wood Frogs, and Blue-spotted Salamanders, more than others? Wood Frogs Blue-spotted Salamander

Amphibians Dr. Bob Brodman and his students from Saint Joseph’s College asked: Do amphibians believe in climate change? It seems like a silly question but animals don’t have political biases or agendas, but they response to changes in their environment. So we can track timing of hibernation, breeding, and tadpole development to see if they are responding to a warming environment in a predictable way.

Dr. Bob and his students have surveyed 17 species of amphibians every year since 1994 and compared their abundance and earliest date encountered each year to climatic data obtained from the local weather station in Rensselaer, IN Average temperature compared to norm has been increasing in Rensselear, IN since 1994

Mean temperature departures from norm from 1993-2012 Mean temperature departures from norm from 1993-2012. Trends are shown for annual means, 3-year means, and Feb-June means.

Regression Models found that the temperature Feb-Jun & Precipitation Feb-May & previous fall explain most of the variation in amphibian abundance (Brodman 2009)

This graph shows the average date that each species was detected during three time periods. The blue bars are the average date from 1994-1999, the green are the average date 2000-2006, and the red are the average date 2007-2012. For each of these species the dates are 14 day sooner in 2000-2006 and 20 days sooner in 2007-2012 compared to the 1990s.

If the weather during those years represents a new climate norm then based on the data the models predicted that four of the 17 species would benefit and become more abundant and seven of the 17 species would be harmed and become less abundant

What’s going on now? So our local amphibians have been responding to climate change by coming out of hibernation and breeding earlier. Our current approach since 2010 has been to record frog calls at a few sites including Indiana Dunes and monitor the abundance of Wood Frogs and Blue-spotted Salamanders mix of loud chorus frogs and spring peepers wood frogs Song Meter recording sound This soundscape shows the 1st evening in 2010 when frogs were calling at Cowles Bog in INDU