Could agriculture be contributing to the catastrophic worldwide decline in amphibians? The finding that a widely used and supposedly benign weed killer is toxic to amphibians, suggests it might.
“I was completely surprised at the extreme lethality of Roundup under relatively natural conditions,” says Rick Relyea, an ecologist at the University of Pittsburgh.
Glyphosate-containing herbicides, including Monsanto’s Roundup, are commonly used on genetically modified crops as well as conventional crops. Spraying outdoor tanks containing 25 different species, including algae and snails, led to a 70 per cent decline in amphibian biodiversity and an 86 per cent decline in the total…
