as threatened with extinction. lN/lore than 120 species have suffered extinction in the last 25 years. One of the reasons that amphibians are so sensitive to environmental changes has to do with their doulole life-on land and in the water-and their thin, permeable skin. NVater- and airbome pollutants quickly penetrate amphibian skin. Developmental stages that depend on moist environments are quickly killed by desiccation.
Local events can result in the decimation of amphibian populations. Clear-cutting forests allows sunlight to reach forest floors and dries the moist haloitats that amphibians require. Mining, drilling, industrial and agricultural operations, and urban sprawl also destroy habitats. Amphibian populations are disappearing, however, from vast areas of the earth, often in regions where local
damage has not occurred.