Nation & world briefing
Science briefs
Study finds weedkiller
causes frog mutations
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Male frogs
are turning into hermaphrodites in
ponds and ditches polluted with
atrazine, the most widely used agri
cultural weedkiller in the United
States, scientists at the University
of Califomia-Berkeley reported
Thursday in the journal Nature.
Researchers said the new study
could help explain why frogs are
in decline. Worldwide, 58 am
phibian species have gone miss
ing or extinct over the past two
decades; an additional 91 are
critically endangered.
A report last spring by scientists
at Pennsylvania State University
said pesticide exposure appears to
make frogs more vulnerable to
parasitic worms that cause de
formed limbs.
But researchers cautioned that
other groups must duplicate the
Berkeley work before the results
can be considered definitive.
In the United States, atrazine is
used mostly on corn and sorghum
crops. It’s the most commonly de
tected pesticide in ground and sur
face water. The Environmental Pro
tection Agency allows up to 3 parts
per billion of the chemical in drink
ing water; it is now drawing up
standards for levels of atrazine in
surface water.
— Glennda IChui, Knight
Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
More plant species face
extinction than thought
ST. LOUIS — More of the world’s
plant species are threatened with
extinction than previously be
lieved, new research shows.
A study co-authored by Peter M.
Jorgensen, a biologist at the Mis
souri Botanical Garden, suggests
that between 22 percent and 47
percent of plant species worldwide
are threatened.
Scientists had previously consid
ered 13 percent of the world’s plant
species threatened.
But that figure does not include a
majority of countries in tropical re
gions, where most of the world’s
species grow, Jorgensen said.
In the report, published Friday
in the journal Science, Jorgensen
and Nigel G.A. Pitman of Duke
University found that 83 percent
of Ecuador’s more than 4,000 na
tive plants were threatened with
extinction.
Based on the Ecuadoran model,
the researchers were able to esti
mate missing data on native
species in other tropical countries.
Because there is debate about
the total number of world plant
species, the researchers made sep
arate calculations on two recent es
timates of the total species:
310,000 and 422,000.
“We’re probably going to lose
things that haven’t even been
named and for which we have no
idea what their utility for mankind
might be,” said George Schatz, a
botanist at the Missouri Botanical
Garden. Plants are “doing all kinds
of things for us. They’re trapping
carbon dioxide and slowing global
warming. They’re cleaning water.
Plants are the basis of all life.”
Scientists say the No. 1 reason so
many plant species are threatened
with extinction is human destruc
tion of their habitats.
“We need to have a good under
standing about the species we have
and the habitats we depend on,”
said Kathryn Kennedy, a botanist at
the Center for Plant Conservation
at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
“(We need) an integrated ap
proach to make man’s activities fit
in that area in a sustainable way,”
she said. “If we can do that, we’ll be
protecting ourselves and the sus
tainability of our economy at the
same time.”
— Jodi Genshaft, St. Louis
Post-Dispatch (KRT)
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