Ecuador is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, but faces severe pressures and threats to its natural ecosystems. Numerous species have declined and require to be objectively evaluated and quantified, as a step towards the development of conservation strategies. Herein, we present an updated National Red List Assessment for amphibian species of Ecuador, with one of the most detailed and complete coverages for any Ecuadorian taxonomic group to date. Based on standardized methodologies that integrate taxonomic work, spatial analyses, and ecological niche modeling, we assessed the extinction risk and identified the main threats for all Ecuadorian native amphibians (635 species), using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. Our evaluation reveals that 57% (363 species) are categorized as Threatened, 12% (78 species) as Near Threatened, 4% (26 species) as Data Deficient, and 27% (168 species) as Least Concern. Our assessment almost doubles the number of threatened species in comparison with previous evaluations. In addition to habitat loss, the expansion of the agricultural/cattle raising frontier and other anthropogenic threats (roads, human settlements, and mining/oil activities) amplify the incidence of other pressures as relevant predictors of ecological integrity. Potential synergic effects with climate change and emergent diseases (apparently responsible for the sudden declines), had particular importance amongst the threats sustained by Ecuadorian amphibians. Most threatened species are distributed in montane forests and paramo habitats of the Andes, with nearly 10% of them occurring outside the National System of Protected Areas of the Ecuadorian government. Based on our results, we recommend the following actions: (i) An increase of the National System of Protected Areas to include threatened species. (ii) Supporting the ex/in-situ conservation programs to protect species considered like Critically Endangered and Endangered. (iii) Focalizing research efforts towards the description of new species, as well as species currently categorized as Data Deficient (DD) that may turn out to be threatened. The implementation of the described actions is challenging, but urgent, given the current conservation crisis faced by amphibians.

It is largely unknown how South America’s Andean forests affect the global carbon cycle, and thus regulate climate change. Here, we measure aboveground carbon dynamics over the past two decades in 119 monitoring plots spanning a range of >3000 m elevation across the subtropical and tropical Andes. Our results show that Andean forests act as strong sinks for aboveground carbon (0.67 ± 0.08 Mg C ha−1 y−1) and have a high potential to serve as future carbon refuges. Aboveground carbon dynamics of Andean forests are driven by abiotic and biotic factors, such as climate and size-dependent mortality of trees. The increasing aboveground carbon stocks offset the estimated C emissions due to deforestation between 2003 and 2014, resulting in a net total uptake of 0.027 Pg C y−1. Reducing deforestation will increase Andean aboveground carbon stocks, facilitate upward species migrations, and allow for recovery of biomass losses due to climate change.

We studied populations of frogs of the genus Atelopus from the Pasto Massif of the Andes in southern Colombia and northern Ecuador, and from the Huancabamba depression in southern Ecuador and northern Perú and conclude that they belong to six species, five of which are described as new to science. Atelopus angelito is recorded for the first time from Ecuador and its range is extended 183 km (airline) southwest of its type locality in Departamento del Cauca, Colombia. We distinguish the five new species from similar ones using features of coloration, skin texture, and morphometrics. We also include osteological data for four of the new species. A putative hybrid zone at Provincia Imbabura, Ecuador, is proposed to exist between the non-sister taxa A. ignescens and one of the new species. Because recent records of four of the new species and A. angelito are lacking despite search efforts, we hypothesize that they are possibly extinct, as are many other Andean Atelopus. Thus, we categorize these species, applying IUCN Red List criteria, as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct). No search efforts have been carried out for one new species (from La Victoria, Colombia); thus, it is included under the Data Deficient category. The conservation of Atelopus is briefly discussed.

We describe a new species of Noblella from the western slope of the Ecuadorian Andes. The new taxon is distinguished from all other species in the genus by lacking dorsal marks (i.e., interobital bar, scapular and sacral chevrons) and by having a bright orange venter. The new species and Noblella heyeri are the only species of Noblella reported in the Pacific Andean versant. We provide an osteological description of the new species and a key for the species in Noblella.

We describe Engystomops puyango sp. nov. from the lowlands of southwestern Ecuador. The new species is closely related to E. pustulatus from which it differs in skin texture, advertisement call, and karyotype features. The new species also differs from E. pustulatus at genes 12S and 16S of mitochondrial DNA (6.5%–6.8% of sequence divergence). A phylogeny based on mtDNA shows that E. sp. nov. is part of a clade of Engystomops distributed below 1300 m in western Ecuador and northwestern Peru. The new species occurs in Evergreen Lower Montane Forest and Foothill Semideciduous Costa Forest. The karyotype of the new species has 2n = 20 chromosomes which represents the first known reduction in chromosome number in Leiuperidae (2n = 22). Its advertisement calls as well as those of E. pustulatus have a facultative component that resembles the chuck in calls of E. pustulosus but that are less discrete and have lower acoustic complexity.