For about 2% of the world’s amphibian species, it’s already getting too hot to survive in their natural habitats, according to a new study in Nature. If the planet keeps warming unchecked, this number is expected to jump to 7.5% by the end of the century. “We found that currently, about 100 species [104 out of 5,203 studied] are likely experiencing overheating events right now, where environmental temperatures exceed their physiological heat limits,” study co-author Alex Gunderson, an ecologist at Tulane University in the U.S., told Mongabay. Amphibians are an incredibly important part of the food web, Gunderson said. “They’re sort of the potato chips of the forest in many of these ecosystems where they serve as food for birds and bats and mammals and fish.” They also eat things that transmit diseases, including mosquitoes, so their loss can affect human health. For instance, a 2020 study showed that the decline of amphibians in Central America was linked to an increase in malaria. A turtle frog (Myobatrachus gouldii) in Australia. Amphibians are a critical part of the food web. Photo courtesy of Ross McGibbon The new research, led by scientists from the University of New South Wales in Australia, gives the most complete picture yet of how climate change affects the ability of amphibians such as frogs and salamanders to regulate their body temperature. The scientists used actual heat tolerance data for 524 species and then statistical methods to generate estimates for more than 5,000 species, representing approximately 60% of…This article was originally published on Mongabay