Lurking in the depth: Pond depth predicts microhabitat selection by Rhinella icterica (Anura: Bufonidae) tadpoles at two different sampling scales

By

Preuss, Gabriel
Silverio Righetto Mauad, Anna Victoria
Shinji Akiyama Kitamura, Rafael
Santiago De Assis, Thara
Corrêa Scalon, Marina
Domingos, Fabricius Maia Chaves Bicalho

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2021-8-4

Original Publication

Herpetozoa

Volume

34

Pages

149--158

Subjects

Atlantic forest , Conservation , Cururu Toad , Depth , Distribution , Habitat selection , substrate cover , water turbidity

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.34.e56326

 

Abstract

Habitat selection has long been a central theme in ecology and has historically considered both physiological responses and ecological factors affecting species establishment. Investigating habitat selection patterns at different scales can provide important information on the relative roles of the environmental factors influencing the organisms’ abilities to use their surrounding habitat. This work aimed at investigating which environmental factors determine habitat selection by Rhinella icterica tadpoles, and also took the opportunity to investigate how the scale in which tadpoles and environmental data are sampled might influence the habitat selection results. A total of 2.240 tadpoles were counted in the whole sampling area, and while substrate cover and depth were the variables that better explained the abundance of tadpoles at the larger scale (plot level), depth and water turbidity better explained tadpoles’ abundance at the smaller scale (subplot level). The results suggest that avoiding predation by matching the background color is a likely process explaining tadpoles’ occupancy at both scales. Depth is known to influence tadpole habitat use in the tropics, and although its combination with turbidity and substrate cover varied between scales, our study suggests that sampling at different scales might not affect the inferred ecological processes driving habitat selection. This information might also be useful to predict tadpoles’ responses to micro-environmental perturbations and help in guiding the choice of parameters that should be taken into account when analyzing the effects of habitat degradation in Atlantic Forest amphibian populations.