Amphibian decline has been recognized as a global issue since the meeting of the First World Congress of Herpetology in England in 1989. The rapidly growing literature on the status of amphibians and the causes of declines has been the subject of several reviews, including Collins and Storfer (2003), Linder and others (2003), and Semlitsch (2003). Two recent analyses suggest that the problem of amphibian declines may be accelerating (Stuart and others, 2004; Thomas and others, 2004). The increasing interest and demand for information to better understand the status and the underlying causes for declines and malformations prompted the U.S. Congress to fund the Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) in 2000. ARMI is a national program coordinated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the science and research bureau for the Department of the Interior (DOI). The goals of the program are to implement a plan to monitor trends in amphibian populations on DOI lands and to study the causes for declines, should they be detected. This program includes cooperation with the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The USGS is uniquely qualified to develop and provide scientific leadership for such an effort. It has a long record of studies on amphibian life history, sampling techniques, toxicology, and health-related issues, and it has the responsibility for many natural-resources monitoring programs at regional, national, and continental scales.
