Physiological and behavioral strategies in frogs in semi-arid: implications for energy and water balance

• Grant number: 10/20230-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: May 01, 2011
• End date: April 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Compared Physiology
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Arturo Navas Iannini
• Grantee: Isabel Cristina Pereira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 08/57687-0 - Effects of global climate change of the Brazilian fauna: a conservation physiology approach, AP.PFPMCG.TEM

Abstract

The Caatinga morphoclimatic form a unique area of Brazil, characterized by low and unpredictable rainfall, and high temperatures. These characteristics seem to make this an inhospitable environment for amphibians. However, this biome is inhabited by 48 species of frogs depicted in 9 families, including species that can survive during the dry season showing estivation as a strategy for survival. In the Caatinga, estivation is characterized as a set of physiological and behavioral changes related to decreased metabolism and retention in specific microhabitats during the drought. This project proposes to investigate the metabolic and behavioral patterns of different species of frogs belonging to two distinct families found buried during the drought in the Caatinga. This work will be focused on the seasonal changes that occur in the species Physalaemus albifrons (Leiuperidae) Proceratophrys cristiceps (Cycloramphidae) and Pleurodema diplolistris (Leiuperidae), which occur in similar microhabitats, but seem to exhibit different responses to the same challenges posed by the environment in general related to the maintenance of power and water balance. Will test hypotheses about the difference in the degree of metabolic depression and use of strategies to maintain the water balance between species.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

PEREIRA, Isabel Cristina. Physiological and behavioral strategies in frogs in the semiarid: implications on the energy and water balance. 2016. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Biociências (IBIOC/SB) São Paulo.