Instructions:
Climate Change as a Threat to Biodiversity
- Students explore the impact of climate change on biodiversity by examining frog spring emergence. Students can learn about the following study by studying the infographic in the Climate Change and Frogs Study Summary pdf:
Klaus, S. P., &Lougheed, S. C. (2013). Changes in breeding phenology of eastern Ontario frogs over four decades. Ecology and Evolution, 3(4), 835-845.
Research shows a dramatic shift in spring emergence using song meter data.
2. Students listen to audio samples on the QUILLS website. Students can also visit the Ottawa U soundcloud where samples were taken from: https://soundcloud.com/uottawa-naturewatch/sets/learn-about-the-frogs-of, to become familiar with the different frog calls. Students then engage in a matching activity in which they match the type of frog with the call that it makes. Activity available in the Climate Change and Frogs Activity.pdf and in the Answer Key.pdf.
To help guide students with reading the waveforms, teachers can use this website: https://californiaherps.com/info/sonograms.html.
Optional Extension Activity:
- Using the infographics from Toronto Zoo Turtle Island Conservation: https://www.torontozoo.com/tz/ticresources students can contribute to citizen science using Toronto Zoo’s FrogWatch program: https://www.torontozoo.com/!/pdfs/adoptapond/Fw-brochure.pdf
