Climatic breadth of calling behaviour in two widespread Neotropical frogs: Insights from humidity extremes

Author(s)

Bonnefond, Anais ^[1] ; Courtois, Elodie A. ^[1] ; Sueur, Jerome ^[2] ; Sugai, Larissa Sayuri M. ^{[3, 4]} ; Llusia, Diego ^{[4, 5, 6]}

Affiliation

^[1] IFREMER, LEEISA UMSR CNRS UG 3456, Ctr Rech Montabo, Cayenne - French Guiana

^[2] Sorbonne Univ, Inst Systemat Evolut Biodiversite ISYEB, EPHE, Museum Natl Hist Nat, CNRS, Paris - France

^[3] Univ Estadual Paulista UNESP, Inst Biociencias, Rio Claro - Brazil

^[4] Univ Autonoma Madrid UAM, Dept Ecol, Terr Ecol Grp, C Darwin 2, Ciudad Univ Cantoblanco, E-28049 Madrid - Spain

^[5] Univ Autonoma Madrid UAM, Ctr Invest Biodiversidad & Cambio Global CIBC UAM, Ciudad Univ Cantoblanco, Madrid - Spain

^[6] Univ Fed Goias UFG, Inst Ciencias Biol, Dept Ecol, Lab Herpetol & Comportamento Anim, Goiania, Go - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY; v. 26, n. 10 AUG 2020.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

Climate change is severely altering precipitation regimes at local and global scales, yet the capacity of species to cope with these changes has been insufficiently examined. Amphibians are globally endangered and particularly sensitive to moisture conditions. For mating, most amphibian species rely on calling behaviour, which is a key weather-dependent trait. Using passive acoustics, we monitored the calling behaviour of two widespread Neotropical frogs in 12 populations located at the humidity extremes but thermal mean of the species distribution. Based on 2,554 hr of recordings over a breeding season, we found that both the aquatic speciesPseudis paradoxaand the arboreal speciesBoana ranicepsexhibited calling behaviour at a wide range of relative humidity. Calling humidity was significantly lower in conspecific populations subjected to drier conditions, while calling temperature did not differ between populations or species. Overall, no variation in climatic breadth was observed between large and small choruses, and calling behaviour was scarcely detected during the driest, hottest and coldest potential periods of breeding. Our results showed that calling humidity of the studied species varies according to the precipitation regime, suggesting that widespread Neotropical anurans may have the capacity to exhibit sexual displays in different climatic environments. Regardless of the underlying mechanism (plasticity or local adaptation), which should be determined by common garden experiments, a wide and population-specific climatic breadth of calling behaviour may assist species to deal with changing humidity conditions. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the response capacity of anurans to perform calling behaviour under contrasting precipitation regimes. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 15/25316-6 - Acoustic signaling assemblages: Structuring processes and implications for community assembly
• Grantee: Larissa Sayuri Moreira Sugai
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 17/15772-0 - The acoustic dimension of biological communities: Evolutionary and Ecological structuring processes
• Grantee: Larissa Sayuri Moreira Sugai
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 13/50421-2 - New sampling methods and statistical tools for biodiversity research: integrating animal movement ecology with population and community ecology
• Grantee: Milton Cezar Ribeiro
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants