News Weather cycles may drive toad decline By Susan Milius April 25, 2001 at 12:22 pm - More than 2 years ago Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X Click to print (Opens in new window) Print For the first time, scientists have linked climate change to a specific mechanism Too much ultraviolet-B radiation renders western toad eggs (top) susceptible to a funguslike killer (bottom). Kiesecker / Nature of doom for one of North America’s amphibians. The plump, lumpy western toad, Bufo boreas, has been declining even in relatively pristine havens like the heights of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, laments Joseph M.