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AMRE_37-1_pp_45-54_Egea-Serrano and VanBuskirk_Supplementary Material.pdf (495.6 kB)

Responses to nitrate pollution, warming and density in common frog tadpoles (Rana temporaria)

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posted on 2016-02-19, 08:22 authored by Andrés Egea-Serrano, Josh Van Buskirk
Amphibians face a variety of anthropogenic environmental perturbations that could act alone or in combination to influence population size. We investigated interactive effects of warming conditions, a moderate pulse of nitrogen pollution, and conspecific density on larvae of the common frog, Rana temporaria. The 16-day experiment had a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design implemented in 80-l Ecology outdoor mesocosms. High density and warm temperature both resulted in reduced activity and visibility; tadpoles grew and developed more quickly at low density and high temperature. The high-nitrogen treatment did not influence behavior, growth, or development rate. We attribute this to several realistic features of our study, including a pulsed treatment application and natural denitrification within the mesocosms. There was only a single interaction among the three factors: higher temperature exacerbated density-dependence in growth rate. These results illustrate that climate warming may benefit temperate amphibians, although the benefits may be counteracted by enhanced larval crowding.

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