I don't think you can rule out acid rain in the disappearance of some species of amphibeans (or fish for that matter). I'm not an expert on the issue by any means, but from what I've read there most likely are several reasons for the decline of amphibeans world wide. I kind of remember reading about some studies with frogs in the 'dacks that tended to support acid rain as the primary cause of their disappearance. What the study found was that although the adult frogs are not affected much if at all by the acid water, their eggs and tadpoles were. So much that they could be completely prevented from raising any young. As most frogs only have a life expectancy of a couple of years, it wouldn't take long for a population in a non buffered watershed to be wiped out. I think this can apply to many fish. How many species of killies do we raise where the fry are more sensitive to water conditions than the adults. All it takes is to change the probability that the young do not reach breeding age to wipe out a species.
Steve
In Jax where it's so humid you practically don't need a fish tank to keep fish.
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Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 06:09:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott <zerelli at yahoo_com>
Subject: Re: Acid rain
There is absolutely no reason to blame acid rain for
disappearing amphibians. Amphibians are disappearing
everywhere including prisitine waters. People are
starting to use this like they do the "acid rain"
theory. Since this is a fish list I won't start in on
this one, but I have found ampibians in water that
probably could not support even the "iron man"
killies.
Scott