国产精品99一区二区三_免费中文日韩_国产在线精品一区二区_日本成人手机在线

Salt could be a sweetener for endangered frog species: study

Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-05 13:13:47|Editor: Yurou
Video PlayerClose

SYDNEY, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Scientists may have found a way to stop a deadly fungus that has caused the decline and extinction of hundreds of frog species around the world.

Simon Clulow, who headed up a groundbreaking new research project at the University of Newcastle in Australia, said that the devastation of the infectious disease is "on a level that hasn't really ever been seen before in modern times."

Chytridiomycosis is believed to be responsible for the extinction of "about one third of the world's frog species," the ecologist explained to Xinhua Monday.

"The first declines are believed to have taken place around the 1950's, however it wasn't until the 1980s when the mass extinction process was really noticed and understood."

Not visible with the naked eye, the microscopic aquatic fungus can be spread easily all over the world through waterways, on frog skin and even inside the tread of a muddy boot, according to Clulow.

With very little known about how to combat the destructive disease, the University of Newcastle team noticed something unusual about Australia's east coast amphibians.

"Most of the frogs in eastern Australia have declined from inland populations and highland populations," Clulow said.

"So we set about testing the hypothesis that perhaps salty water could have an effect on the disease."

"Then we conducted outdoor field trials where we salted pools very slightly."

The results showed that researchers could increase the rate of survival when salt was added to the water by around 70 percent.

Clulow said that they only raised the salt by a couple of parts per thousand, "so it's still fresh water that humans can drink, but even the small amount creates an unfavourable environment that the fungus doesn't like."

The team now plans to corroborate their data in parts of South America.

TOP STORIES
EDITOR’S CHOICE
MOST VIEWED
EXPLORE XINHUANET
010020070750000000000000011100001369502961
主站蜘蛛池模板: 利川市| 蕲春县| 平山县| 温宿县| 吉林市| 资源县| 同德县| 玛多县| 桂阳县| 普兰店市| 西和县| 丰城市| 越西县| 同江市| 邓州市| 雷波县| 大邑县| 望都县| 太仓市| 永康市| 黎川县| 石渠县| 平罗县| 琼中| 乌鲁木齐县| 祁阳县| 鄂托克旗| 浦城县| 福州市| 淮南市| 保定市| 陇西县| 大宁县| 中西区| 嘉善县| 舟曲县| 裕民县| 湖口县| 洪湖市| 岑巩县| 集安市|