【推荐1】Amphibian (两栖动物) species are disappearing at an alarming rate across the globe due to habitat loss, pollution, and disease. FrogWatch trainings cover the importance of amphibians in the environment, how monitoring our local frog population helps to protect them, factors to consider in choosing a site to monitor, how to identify frog species by their calls and how to report findings to FrogWatch USA. Become a citizen scientist with FrogWatch USA, and help save our frogs!

FrogWatch trainings cover the importance of amphibians in the environment. The instruction focuses on how to:

1. monitor our local frog population to protect the species;

2. determine factors when choosing a site to monitor;

3. recognize frog species by their calls;

4. report findings to FrogWatch USA.

After passing a test on identifying frog calls at the end of the training, certified volunteers then commit themselves to monitoring a local amphibian habitat (such as a pond or lake) approximately once a week for about 15 minutes, and collecting /submitting data on what they hear. Data collected will be added to a national FrogWatch USA database. In 2020, Rhode Island FrogWatch citizen scientists followed 80 sites almost 900 times! In those 900 observations, FrogWatchers, heard more than 1,220 frog choruses.

【推荐3】More than half of the world’s largest lakes have lost significant amounts of water over the last three decades, and roughly one-quarter of the world’s population lives in the basin of a drying lake, according to a new study by a team of international scientists, which pins the blame largely on climate change and excessive(过度的)water use.

While lakes cover only around 3% of the planet, they hold nearly 90% of its liquid surface freshwater and are primary sources of drinking water, irrigation and power, and they provide vital habitats(栖息地) for animals and plants.

Across the world, the most significant lakes are seeing sharp declines. The Colorado River’s Lake Mead in Southwest US has shrunk dramatically due to a megadrought(大干旱) and decades of overuse. The Caspian Sea, between Asia and Europe     the world’s largest inland body of water     has long been declining.

The shrinking of many lakes has been well documented by environmental groups, but the reasons behind it have been hardly examined, said Fangfang Yao, the study’s lead author and a visiting scholar at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The researchers used satellite measurements of nearly 2,000 of the world’s largest lakes, which together represent 95% of Earth’s total lake water storage. Examining more than 250,000 satellite images spanning from 1992 to 2020, along with climate models, they were able to reconstruct the history of the lakes going back decades.

“The results were staggering,” Yao said. “It’s a little scary to see how many freshwater systems are unable to store as much water as they used to.”

“As many parts of the world become hotter and drier, lakes must be managed properly. Otherwise climate change and human activities can lead to drying sooner than we think,” Yao added.