The Ecological Society of America established a new journal, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, in 2003. Frontiers is intended for a wide audience and includes synthetic articles with particular relevance to environmental issues. “Frontiers Issues to Teach Ecology” is designed to help ecology faculty use selected articles in ecology courses plus do classroom research on their teaching.

ARTICLE:

AR Blaustein and PTJ Johnson. 2003. The complexity of deformed amphibians. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 2(1): 87-94

ECOLOGICAL CONTENT:

amphibian populations, trematode parasites, amphibian deformities, biocomplexity, biodiversity, conservation biology

TEACHING FOCUS:

The article focuses on amphibian deformities, which may be related to a global decline in amphibians. Therefore, this Issue could be used in sections of courses dealing with diversity loss. By working with this paper and additional figures, students come to appreciate the complexity of biodiversity loss. Specifically, they gain an understanding of why scientists disagree about causes of amphibian limb deformities and why the search for a single factor is likely too simple.

Authored and edited by Charlene D'Avanzo, School of Natural Sciences, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, 01002
cdavanzo@hampshire.edu