The Australian bushfires have consumed 17 million hectares of forest in the later part of 2019 and 2020. Citizens stepped up and recorded frog calls using a mobile phone and a FrogID mobile app and helped scientists build a snapshot of the existing frogs in Australia before and after the fire.
Scientists and conservation groups are wary of the extent of the fire's damage to animal and plant species. But due to the extent of area damage and the COVID-19 travel restrictions, a scientific survey poses a big challenge.
Scientists were already expecting that damage to plant and animal species may be substantial, especially for problematic status species. Frogs are particularly vulnerable as it is sensitive to pressures such as change of temperature, disease, and habitat loss. Information on how frogs can respond to fires is limited.
But with the help of citizens, mobile phones, and the FrogID app, researchers were able to compile 45 frog species from recorded calls after the fires.
The findings were published in Conservation Science and Practice on September 27.
READ: The Cryptic Life of the Burrowing Frogs
FrogID Mobile App
The FrogID, the app instrumental to a recent mapping of frogs from its recorded calls, is a free app downloaded to smartphones.
Headed by the Australian Museum, the project makes it possible for anyone to record a frog call and upload it. A team of scientists then identifies the species by its call and develops a national database from it.
The app was launched in November 2017, and more than 13,000 citizen scientists have downloaded the app, had recorded 220,000 frogs calls all over the country.
Australian Frogs
Australia has 240 known frog species. At least four of these species are believed to be extinct, while 36 are nationally threatened. After the fire, scientists needed more information on which frogs required immediate help. With the travel restrictions die to COVID-19 after bush fires, a field survey has become a challenge.
Before the fire, citizen scientists were able to send 2,655 recordings of 66 frog species from the areas that were consumed by the fire. During the four months of the fire, 632 recordings were passed on to the FrogID team. From the recordings, researchers confirmed the presence of 45 of the 66 species previously recorded; later, 33 summer-breeding frog species were also detected, making the researchers conclude that there were no "missing" frog species.
The eastern froglet (Crinia signifera) and striped marsh frog (Limnodynastes peronii) were the most common ones recorded. Rare and threatened species like the vulnerable southern barred frog (Mixophyes balbus), the endangered giant barred frog (Mixophyes iteratus), and mountain frog (Philoria kundagungan) were also confirmed present.
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The Traditional Survey is Still Necessary.
Despite the valuable data from citizen scientists, researchers said more information on how the affected Australian frog is still lacking, especially for species with high conservation concern. Tradition survey is still necessary, but the FrogID will remain a powerful tool as it allows the gathering of information quickly at a large scale.
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