Effects of Climate Change in Amphibians and Reptiles

During the past decade it has been documented that the average of earth temperature increased 6 °C in a period of 100 years. The higher amount of this phenomenon has been recorded between 1910 and 1945 and, from 1976 to present date (Jones, 1999; Kerr, 1995; Oechel et al., 1994; Thomason, 1995). From 1976 to present the temperature rising has been the faster recorded in the last 10,000 years (Jones et al., 2001; Taylor, 1999; Walther et al., 2002), and this caused the maximum daily temperature increase in the southern hemisphere (Easterling et al., 2000), as well as a significant temperature increase in the tropical forest areas (Barnett et al., 2005; Houghton et al., 2001; Santer et al., 2003; Stott, 2003). According to projections, the average temperature of earth may increase up to 5.8 °C (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC, 2007) at the end of current century, which actually represents and enormous threat for biodiversity (Mc Carty, 2001; Parmesan & Yohe, 2003). Although the historical data describes a changing climate during the last 350 million years of amphibians and reptiles history (Duellman & Trueb, 1985), the abrupt rising of the temperature during the last century could have a great impact on ectotherm organisms, which depend of environmental temperature to achieve physiological operative body temperatures (Walter et al., 2002; Zachos et al., 2001). Thus, the accelerated grow of earth temperature could affect physiological, reproductive, ecological, behavioral, and distribution traits among amphibians and reptiles (Cleland et al., 2006; Dorcas et al., 2004; Pough, 2001; Gvozdik & Castilla, 2001). In this context, a review of the published studies is necessary to evaluate and summarize the evidence of climate change effects in amphibians and reptiles. This review should provide an overview that should be helpful for researches, students, and policy makers, in order to address how climate change affects amphibians and reptiles, and the possible responses of these organisms to climate change. Due to the available published information are not equal for amphibians and reptiles, the present chapter are divided in two: amphibians and reptiles. In each chapter subdivision a physiological, reproductive, and distribution effects are issued as long as information was available. Additional information in amphibians such as synergic effects of environmental factors due climate change, and evolutionary adaptations are addressed. At the end of the chapter a conclusion section is added in order to summarize the most important trends addressed in this review.