How landfills affect amphibian’s morphology? The case of the invasive species Rhinella marina

Abstract

Landfills have been identified as one of the main threats to wildlife, such as amphibians, since landfills as they contaminate the aquatic and terrestrial habitat and act as stressors, negatively affecting the development and morphology of amphibians. However, few studies have been realized to know the morphological variation of anurans under environmental disturbances. In this study, we compared the morphological patterns of Rhinella marina in contrasting habitats: a temperate forest and a landfill, in the San Martín de las Cañas dam, Jalisco, Mexico. We analyzed morphology, body traits size and allometric patterns. The Body shape of the landfill toads was more elongated and thinner than that of the forest toads. We found that toads from the forest had greater sizes in most of the morphological traits in comparison to toads from the landfill. Allometric patterns showed that most of the morphological characters had a negative allometric patterns in many traits in toads from both conditions. Rhinella marina has showed affinity for disturbed areas or sites around human settlements, and persists in habitats altered by urbanization. However, our results showed an increase in stress levels in toads that inhabit landfills.