Phenotypic Plasticity of Bufo bankorensis Tadpoles Under Different Flow Regimes
Date Issued
2014
Date
2014
Author(s)
Li, Bei-Shan
Abstract
Phenotypic plasticity allows individuals respond to environmental challenges timely, thus generally promotes fitness. Tadpoles of some anuran species inhabit aquatic habitats with different flow regimes. However, the effects of flow regime on tadpoles are unclear due to the dearth of studies. In this study, I investigated the phenotypic plasticity of morphological, physiological, behavioral and life history traits of Bufo bankorensis tadpoles under different flow regimes. In the laboratory, I randomly assigned tadpoles at G27 stage to two treatments: static vs. flowing water. The results showed that tadpoles reared in flowing water had relative smaller body width and body height, but the values of relative tail length, tail muscle width and red muscle layers were larger than those reared in static water. Tadpoles living in flowing water also had better sustained swimming performance than those from static water groups. Furthermore, the regression analysis demonstrated a significant positive relationship between sustained swimming performance and PC1 composed by relative body length(＋), body width (－), body height (－), tail length (＋) and tail muscle width (＋). It showed that individuals with a relatively narrow and shallow body, and had a long tail with thick tail muscle performed better in sustained swimming. Although tadpoles with such characteristics may gain benefits in foraging efficiency and predator avoidance during larvae stage, they pay the costs of entering metamorphosis late and at a small size. Moreover, I also found that the responses of tail length and muscle layers to treatments were distinct between pond and stream populations, which suggested population divergence between habitats. Further research is needed to provide sound evidence of population differentiation.
Subjects
盤古蟾蜍
水流
尾長
紅肌
耐力游泳
棲地
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-103-R00b44001-1.pdf
Size
23.32 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):3b7b5cabd840dbf9b5eb3081375dd2f8