Preferred Temperature Correlates with Evaporative Water Loss in Hylid Frogs from Northern Australia

Tracy, C. Richard; Christian, Keith A.

doi:10.1086/432151

Cited by 34 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Arboreal hylid species, such as L. gracilenta , L. splendida or L. infrafrenata , might avoid excessive water loss by high cutaneous resistance, coupled with postural changes that protect their ventral surfaces (Tyler, ). This is supported by previous studies, as most of the frogs that display elevated values are arboreal frogs (Tracy & Christian, ), mainly in the families Hylidae, Rhacophoridae and Hyperoliidae. Certain clades or species within these lineages usually differ widely in cutaneous resistance to water loss (Young et al ., ; Tracy et al ., ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Convergent evolution across theAustralian continent: ecotype diversification drives morphological convergence in two distantly related clades ofAustralian frogs

Vidal‐García

Keogh

2015

J of Evolutionary Biology

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Animals from different clades but subject to similar environments often evolve similar body shapes and physiological adaptations due to convergent evolution, but this has been rarely tested at the transcontinental level and across entire classes of animal. Australia's biome diversity, isolation and aridification history provide excellent opportunities for comparative analyses on broad-scale macroevolutionary patterns. We collected morphological and environmental data on eighty-four (98%) Australian hylid frog species and categorized them into ecotypes. Using a phylogenetic framework, we tested the hypothesis that frogs from the same ecotype display similar body shape patterns: (i) across all the Australian hylids, and (ii) through comparison with a similar previous study on 127 (97%) Australian myobatrachid species. Body size and shape variation did not follow a strong phylogenetic pattern and was not tightly correlated with environment, but there was a stronger association between morphotype and ecotype. Both arboreal and aquatic frogs had long limbs, whereas limbs of fossorial species were shorter. Other terrestrial species were convergent on the more typical frog body shape. We quantified the strength of morphological convergence at two levels: (i) between fossorial myobatrachid and hylid frogs, and (ii) in each ecomorph within the hylids. We found strong convergence within ecotypes, especially in fossorial species. Ecotypes were also reflected in physiological adaptations: both arboreal and cocooned fossorial frogs tend to have higher rates of evaporative water loss. Our results illustrate how adaptation to different ecological niches plays a crucial role in morphological evolution, boosting phenotypic diversity within a clade. Despite phylogenetic conservatism, morphological adaptation to repeatedly emerging new environments can erase the signature of ancestral morphotypes, resulting in phenotypic diversification and convergence both within and between diverse clades.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Convergent evolution across theAustralian continent: ecotype diversification drives morphological convergence in two distantly related clades ofAustralian frogs

Vidal‐García

Keogh

2015

J of Evolutionary Biology

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“…through thermoregulation. In fact, several species select lower temperatures when dehydrated (Shoemaker et al 1989;Tracy et al 1993;Williams and Wygoda 1993) or in dry conditions (Malvin and Wood 1991), and species that are more prone to dehydration tend to select lower temperatures than less vulnerable ones (Tracy and Christian 2005). However, lower temperatures would probably not benefit R. granulosa, as dehydration effects on hopping speed were independent of body temperature.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dehydration Hardly Slows Hopping Toads (Rhinella granulosa) from Xeric and Mesic Environments

Prates¹,

Angilleta²,

Wilson³

et al. 2013

Physiological and Biochemical Zoology

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The locomotor capacity of amphibians depends strongly on temperature and hydration. Understanding the potential interactions between these variables remains an important challenge because temperature and water availability covary strongly in natural environments. We explored the effects of temperature and hydration on the hopping speeds of Rhinella granulosa, a small toad from the semiarid Caatinga and the Atlantic Rain Forest in Brazil. We asked whether thermal and hydric states interact to determine performance and whether toads from the Caatinga differ from their conspecifics from the Atlantic Forest. Both dehydration and cooling impaired hopping speed, but effects were independent of one another. In comparison to performances of other anurans, the performance of R. granulosa was far less sensitive to dehydration. Consequently, dehydrated members of this species may be able to sustain performance through high body temperatures, which agrees with the exceptional heat tolerance of this species. Surprisingly, toads from both the Caatinga and the Atlantic Forest were relatively insensitive to dehydration. This observation suggests that migration or gene flow between toads from the forest and those from a drier region occurred or that toads from a dry region colonized the forest secondarily.

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“…Although the importance of T p selection in lizards is widely accepted, some authors have suggested the existence of a tradeoff between T p and evaporative water loss (WL ;Bruce 1990;Bowker 1993); those species capable of reducing WL while remaining mobile have the best chances of having a precise temperature control (Tracy 1976;Buttemer 1990) without experiencing the cooling and dehydrating effects of evaporation (Tracy and Christian 2005). Studies assessing water loss rates (WLRs) have demonstrated that lizards can also modify their dehydration levels as an adaptation to novel environments (e.g., Kolbe et al 2014), but they also report cases of strong phylogenetic influences on this trait (e.g., Mautz 1982;García-Muñoz and Carretero 2013;Osojnik et al 2013;Carneiro et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecophysiology Tracks Phylogeny and Meets Ecological Models in an Iberian Gecko

Rato

Carretero²

2015

Physiological and Biochemical Zoology

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Because fitness of ectotherms, including reptiles, is highly dependent on temperature and water availability, the study of ecophysiological traits, such as preferred temperature (T p) and water loss rates (WLRs), may provide mechanistic evidence on the restricting factors to the species ranges. The Moorish gecko, Tarentola mauritanica, is a species complex with a circum-Mediterranean distribution. In the Iberian Peninsula, two sister parapatric forms of the complex, known as the Iberian and the European clades, are found. Ecological models previously performed using presence records and bioclimatic variables suggest niche divergence between both lineages correlated with precipitation rather than with temperature. In this study, we test this correlative hypothesis using ecophysiological evidence. In the laboratory, we analyzed the T p and WLRs for 84 adult males from seven distinct populations ascribed to one of the two lineages present in Iberia. Specifically, we evaluated the existence of trait conservatism versus adaptation among populations, lineages, or both. In addition, we tested for a trade-off between water and thermal traits and assessed whether climate regime of sampling localities had any influence on the ecophysiological patterns found. We found that T p is quite conserved at both the population and lineage levels and independent from body size. In contrast, water loss experiments revealed some variation among populations, but the regression analysis failed to detect correlation between T p and WLR at any level. Overall, the European lineage displayed a trend for higher water loss and was more diverse among populations when compared with the Iberian lineage. The lack of correspondence between ecophysiological traits and local climatic conditions favors phylogenetic signal versus adaptation. This suggests divergent evolutionary responses to the environment, mainly acting on water ecology, in both lineages, which may account for the differences in their range expansion.

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Preferred Temperature Correlates with Evaporative Water Loss in Hylid Frogs from Northern Australia

Cited by 34 publications

References 44 publications

Convergent evolution across theAustralian continent: ecotype diversification drives morphological convergence in two distantly related clades ofAustralian frogs

Convergent evolution across theAustralian continent: ecotype diversification drives morphological convergence in two distantly related clades ofAustralian frogs

Dehydration Hardly Slows Hopping Toads (Rhinella granulosa) from Xeric and Mesic Environments

Ecophysiology Tracks Phylogeny and Meets Ecological Models in an Iberian Gecko

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