Which way will Cape frogs jump when it gets hotter?

This week saw the publication of Mac's climate modelling paper where he determines the movement of the fynbos amphibian community in the face of global climate change. His paper shows convincingly that the rate of change for these amphibians is likely to be much larger over the next 50 years than it has been in the past 20 000 years.

Amphibians have been losing out in the Cape for 20 000 years mainly due to the rise in sea level and the loss of a lot of the Agulhus Bank (see also Schreiner et al 2013). However, future climate change will see the rate of loss accelerating. For more information, read the article: Mokhatla et al 2015.