Diet and food resource partition among benthic tadpoles of three anuran species in Atlantic Forest tropical streams

Autor(es)

Santos, Flavio J. M. ^[1] ; Protazio, Airan S. ^[1] ; Moura, Carlos W. N. ^[2] ; Junca, Flora A. ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Estadual Feira de Santana, Dept Ciencias Biol, Programa Posgrad Zool, BR-44036900 Feira De Santana, BA - Brazil

^[2] Univ Estadual Feira de Santana, Dept Ciencias Biol, Lab Ficol, BR-44036900 Feira De Santana, BA - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: JOURNAL OF FRESHWATER ECOLOGY; v. 31, n. 1, p. 53-60, JAN 2 2016.
• Citações Web of Science: 4

Resumo

The study of the diet of tadpoles can provide important information about the maintenance and dynamics of populations and communities of tropical amphibians. Tadpoles are in general herbivores and consume mostly algae. Despite this, little is known about how specific guilds use resources that are available in the same space and at the same time. It is thought that species of tadpoles segregate based on food use, especially in lotic environments where food resources may be a limiting factor. Conversely, it is believed that the use of food resources is similar among tadpoles with the same ecomorphotype. This study examined the diet of Aplastodiscus cavicola, Aplastodiscus sibilatus and Bokermannohyla capra syntopic tadpoles, as similarities may exist between these benthic species, all of which are adapted to the flow of water. This study was undertaken in the Michelin Ecological Reserve, municipality of Igrapiuna, state of Bahia, Brazil. To analyze the diet of the tadpoles, nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) was performed to evaluate the similarity between the diets of the species. Analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) was carried out to detect whether diet differed among tadpole species. The diet of these tadpoles consists mainly of algae, especially diatoms, plants, protozoa, fungi and microscopic animals. The NMDS identified three clusters representing the three species studied. ANOSIM detected significant differences among the diets of the species, which indicates partition of food resources. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 10/52321-7 - Girinos de anuros da Mata Atlântica, da Amazônia, do Pantanal, do cerrado e de zonas de transição: caracterização morfológica, distribuição espacial e padrões de diversidade
• Beneficiário: Denise de Cerqueira Rossa-Feres
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa BIOTA - Regular