Abstract
Hydroperiod length has been identified as a major driver in community assembly in freshwater systems. Yet we generally lack an understanding of how morphological traits respond to water level decrease under natural conditions. Here, we studied variation in body size and shape in lateral view in tadpoles of Scinax squalirostris and Odontophrynus americanus inhabiting ponds in superhumid highland plateau in southern Brazil. Hydroperiod did not affect tadpole size in either species. In relation to body shape, S. squalirostris tadpoles from long hydroperiod ponds had shorter tails and deeper tail fins than tadpoles from other hydroperiods. Predator presence was positively associated with hydroperiod, restricting our ability to separate their effects on tadpoles morphology. For O. americanus, tadpole shape was not affected by pond hydroperiod. We demonstrated that, in natural environment, the influence of hydroperiod on tadpole morphology might depend on species-specific characteristics, such as behavior and life-history traits. Our results indicate that local context may lead to different effects of hydroperiod, and hydroperiod alone can only partly explain the variation on tadpole shape.
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded by CNPq – Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – (474892/2013-1) and Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos - UNISINOS. We declare that data collection complied with current Brazilian laws (SISBIO 36365-2). All authors read and approved the final manuscript. We have no conflict of interest to declare.
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Figure S1.
Location of the study area—Bom Jesus municipality, Araucaria moist forest, Brazil. Symbols indicate the 18 ponds sampled. (TIFF 3430 kb)
Figure S2
. Drawings for the seven shape component along with the percent variation in total shape explained by each component for: A) Scinax squalirostris; B) Odontophrynus americanus. Black outline corresponding to high values of the component and gray outline corresponding to the average form (JPEG 592 kb)
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Boelter, T., dos Santos, F.M., Moreira, L.F.B. et al. Effects of hydroperiod on morphology of tadpoles from highland ponds. Aquat Ecol 54, 1145–1153 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-020-09799-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-020-09799-1