A study co-authored by Clarkson researchers has been named Editors' Choice by a top journal of conservation science.

Biological Conservation features a study on the negative effects of roads on frog populations its monthly selections for December 2014. Clarkson professor of biology Tom Langen, biology student Jessica Beach and other pupils in Langen's global environmental change and conservation biology courses collaborated on the nationwide frog research project.

As an editors' choice, the paper is open source for one year. The article is available athttp://www.journals.elsevier.com/biological-conservation/ .

"The paper will be brought to people's attention more directly both in the field of conservation science and also the press to make people more aware of this issue," Langen said.

Citizen scientists under direction of the U.S. Geological Survey's North American Amphibian Monitoring Program collected data on the number of frogs at thousands of points across the United States, as well as the number of cars passing by on nearby roads. The researchers analyzed the data to see if there were human factors that might explain the presence or absence of amphibian species in the area, accounting for issues such as noise level that could decrease the detectability of frog calls.