The body condition and energy reserves of the invading anuran Eleutherodactylus johnstonei during the reproductive period

• Grant number: 20/08783-8
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): April 01, 2021
• Effective date (End): August 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal researcher: Cinthia Aguirre Brasileiro
• Grantee: Amanda D'Ambrosio Seabra de Morais
• Home Institution: Instituto de Ciências Ambientais, Químicas e Farmacêuticas (ICAQF). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Diadema. Diadema , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Temperature and humidity influence the physiology and reproduction of anuran amphibians. During the period of adverse conditions, anurans exhibit physiological adjustments in order to guarantee survival. Such adjustments confer a hypometabolic state to individuals in most species, making them dependent on endogenous energy stores, such as lipids and glycogen stored in organs and tissues. Body condition indicates the health of individuals and can be measured by the allometric relationship between mass and body size and or energy reserves. This condition can vary according to environmental variables such as temperature and food availability. In frogs that go through a period of dormancy, individuals are expected to have a better body condition at the end of the reproductive period. Also, it is expected that energy stocks will be lower at the beginning of the reproductive period (post-dormancy) and that it will gradually increase during the reproductive period so that it will have enough energy to invest in reproduction and survive in the period of inactivity (dormancy) . Therefore, the present study aims to evaluate the energy reserves and body condition of males and females of Eleutherodactylus johnstonei during the reproductive period. The E. johnstonei individuals will be collected between October 2020 and April 2021. The evaluation of the variation of the corporal condition during the reproductive activity of E. johnstonei will be done through an index expressed by the relation between body mass and rostro-cloacal length of individuals and the variation of fat reserves through the number of lipids stored in the livers and mass of fatty bodies.