Published by Development - On 8 June 2010

Liliana Solano Florez a PHD Student from Manchester University in the UK is currently doing her thesis on Amphibians. The goal of her thesis is to assess the diversity of Amphibians in Central America. Liliana collaborates with local organizations such as TIDE to complete her research. Ms. Florez conducted research with TIDE from June 9-16, 2010. Staff from Payne’s Creek National Park and TIDE Private Protected Lands participated in the research. At the end of research we will have a list of amphibians that can be found in the protected areas.  Nationally there has not been much research in this area. The technique used in the research is DNA Bar coding.
 
There are three groups of amphibian frogs and toads, salamanders and caecilians. Amphibians spend part of their life in water and the rest in land. This is a diverse group of organisms that lives in different ecosystems.
 
Amphibians are good bio indicators of the health of the environment. If amphibians start to disappear then we should be concerned. They also help control populations of disease vectors such as mosquitoes that transmit diseases including malaria, dengue and yellow fever. They are food for other predators such as fishes and snakes.