“This has a beneficial outcome. While it doesn’t mean that pesticides are beneficial to amphibians, our work does suggest that amphibians can evolve to resist a variety of pesticides and therefore improve their survival.”
“This has a beneficial outcome. While it doesn’t mean that pesticides are beneficial to amphibians, our work does suggest that amphibians can evolve to resist a variety of pesticides and therefore improve their survival.”
I recently read about a ‘science fair’ project which demonstrated that ‘organic’ (pesticide-free) fruit supported a larger, healthier population of fruit flies (Drosophila) than conventional fruit (with residual pesticides). The conclusion everyone ignored was that residual pesticides can be lethal to residual pests.
A similar mechanism may be at work in the amphibians, whereby traces of pseticides may be working to protect the amphibians from fungal and/or bacterial pests.
I’ve read that the rats in NYC and Chicago have bred so rapidly that they are immune to most of the rat poisons available. Same kind of thing.