Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 29 July 2019
Tiny beetles munch through endangered songbird habitat

By FELICIA FONSECA and San Pedro watersheds,
Associated Press which have higher con-
CLARKDALE, Ariz. (AP) — centrations of flycatcher
Matt Johnson treks along habitat.
an Arizona riverbank and The beetles aren't known
picks out a patch of yel- to feast on anything other
low-tinged tamarisks. He than tamarisks, though one
sweeps a cloth net across beetle can't eat much on
the trees, hoping to scoop its own. In the thousands,
up beetles that munch on they can consume entire
their evergreen-like leaves. trees, Bean said.
He counts spiders, ants and The tamarisk leaves can
leafhoppers among the grow back within the sea-
catch and few beetles or son, but repeated attacks
their larvae. can be fatal for the trees —
"Their numbers are really a welcome result in places
low," the Northern Arizona flycatchers don't live.
University researcher said. The browning leaves from
That the tiny beetles beetle attacks increase the
brought to the U.S. from likelihood of a wildfire start.
Asia in an experiment to de- The highly flammable trees
vour invasive, water-suck- are notorious for burning
ing tamarisks showed up at This April 2009 photo provided by the Colorado Department of Agriculture shows tamarisk leaf hot and black when they're
beetles along the Colorado River in southern Utah. The beetles were brought to the U.S. from Asia
the Verde River in central to devour invasive tamarisk, or salt cedar, trees. alive. Once they die, they
Arizona is no surprise. But Associated Press are more fire-resistant, re-
it's further evidence they're search shows.
spreading faster than once tamarisk trees began as an tles hitchhiked to the Verde Arizona once was pro- Ben Bloodworth works with
anticipated and eventually experiment in rural Nevada River on clothing, a back- jected to be too hot for Rivers Edge West, former-
could pervade the South- in 2001 and was approved pack or a boat. Normally, the beetles to survive, but ly the Tamarisk Coalition,
west U.S, raising the risk for for more widespread use in they are wind travelers but they've evolved as they've which has been tracking
wildfires and allowing less 2005, as long as they were would have had to catch expanded their reach. Dan the beetles' movement
time to uproot the tama- at least 200 miles (322 kilo- quite a gust to get to the Bean with the Colorado for years. The group has
risks, also called salt cedars, meters) from Southwestern river from the closest drain- Department of Agriculture mapped the beetles along
and replacing them with willow flycatcher territory. It age where they've been found even more this sum- the Green River in Utah,
native trees. ended in 2010 as the bee- recorded, he said. mer in far southwestern Ari- the Rio Grande and Pecos
Without those efforts, dry- tles intruded on the birds' Johnson has sent samples zona along the California River in New Mexico and
ing foliage can spark wild- habitat. An unpermitted re- to a geneticist in Colorado border, where tempera- Texas, the Arkansas River
fires and an endangered lease in southern Utah also to determine if the beetles tures regularly top 100 de- in Colorado, the Colorado
songbird that nests in tama- helped the insects spread can be traced to a popu- grees (38 Celsius). River — a major source of
risk might not have a home. into Arizona. lation north of Arizona or a The concern now is the water for 40 million people
The federal program to use Johnson believes the quar- subtropical one from Texas beetles firmly establishing in seven Western states —
the beetles to chew up ter-inch (6 millimeter) bee- that multiplies quicker. themselves in the Gila, Salt and other waterways.q
Frog population explodes in region of Vermont

By LISA RATHKE population of the northern frogs has emerged. "And it's year. Then a warm spell were crushed.
SALISBURY, Vt. (AP) — A wet leopard frog has leaped a result, I think, of not only sped up the development "They're just all over the
spring has caused one frog a hundredfold in a region the perfect storm of condi- of the young tadpoles, fields," said LeeAnn Go-
population to explode in near the Otter Creek in Ad- tions this year but also as a which transformed into odrich, of her family's farm.
an area of Vermont where dison County. result of climate change, frogs just as the fields were "Even my husband who's
throngs of the amphib- "People who have been the amount of extra mois- drying out, according to been here since he was
ians have been hopping here you know 30 years or ture that we're getting in Andrews. a child has said the same
through fields and lawns, more say they have never this area in general." "We had this wave of hun- thing — that he's never
darting across roads and seen this many frogs," said Rainfall — or a lack of it — dreds of thousands of frogs seen this many frogs."
getting flattened by cars Andrews, who is also co- can have big impacts on that successfully metamor- The small, young, bright
and tractors. ordinator of The Vermont amphibian populations, phosed," Andrews said. green frogs with brown
University of Vermont her- Reptile and Amphibian At- said John Kanter, a senior "And over the last week, spots aren't hard to spot.
petology lecturer James las and lives in the town of wildlife biologist at the Na- week and a half, they have They leap up in fields like
Andrews estimates that the Salisbury, where a mass of tional Wildlife Federation. moved out a mile, mile and popcorn but also are swift
The region of Salisbury and a half maybe, two miles in and hard to catch. But
some surrounding towns that direction. You can see the population has started
near the Otter Creek had a the dead frog remains on to disperse. And no doubt
wet spring, and some fields the road." they will be a bounty for
held water into July. Andrews and others count- wildlife. "This should be ad-
The northern leopard frog ed 400,000 dead frogs on a vantage for fish, for her-
lays its eggs in the grassy half-mile stretch of road. ons, for ducks, for hawks,
flood plains of the creek; The dried-up carnage is still for owls, snakes, raccoons,
normally many of those visible and odorous along skunks, opossum," said An-
eggs would have dehy- the road while dark specks drews. "This should just be a
drated as fields dried out, in the pavement show buffet essentially for lots of
but that didn't happen this where many other frogs wildlife."q