A Spatiotemporal Assessment of Dietary Partitioning between Color Morphs of a Terrestrial Salamander

Hantak, Maggie M.; Brooks, Kyle M.; Hickerson, Cari‐Ann M.; Anthony, Carl D.; Kuchta, Shawn R.

doi:10.1643/ce-19-264

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…1 ). The color morphs are differentiated along several niche axes, including physiology, diet, territoriality, predation responses, and mating interactions 24 , 27 – 32 . In addition, the morphs appear to be linked with particular climatic conditions: the striped morph is more often associated with cooler, wetter climatic niches, and the unstriped morph more with warmer, drier conditions 33 – 35 (but see 36 , 37 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid phenotypic change in a polymorphic salamander over 43 years

Hantak

Federico

Blackburn

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Color polymorphic animals offer a unique system for studying intraspecific phenotypic responses to climate change. Discrete color morphs are easy to identify, and correlated trait responses of morphs can indicate how climate warming may facilitate long-term maintenance of polymorphisms. We use a historical dataset spanning 43 years to examine temporal shifts in color morph frequency and body size in response to climate in the Eastern Red-backed Salamander, Plethodon cinereus, which contains a widespread striped/unstriped color polymorphism. We created a pipeline to extract high-throughput trait data from fluid-preserved museum specimens where we batch-photographed salamanders, de-aggregated individual specimens from photographs, and solicited help of community scientists to score color morphs. We used a linear modeling framework that includes information about spatial population structure to demonstrate that color morph frequency and body size vary in response to climate, elevation, and over time, with an overall trend of higher frequency and decreased body size of the striped morph, but increased size of the unstriped morph. These surprising results suggest that morphs may be responding to multiple climate and geographic drivers through co-adapted morphological changes. This work highlights new practices of extracting trait data from museum specimens to demonstrate species phenotypes response to climate change.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid phenotypic change in a polymorphic salamander over 43 years

Hantak

Federico

Blackburn

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…Importantly, the categorical analysis of low versus high refuge‐use salamanders did show that out‐of‐refuge activity increased foraging success, and we interpret this result as being consistent with the hypothesis that greater surface activity would promote striped morphs' foraging success in the field. Indeed, striped morphs have been shown to obtain a more diverse and higher quality diet than unstriped morphs under field conditions (Anthony et al., 2008 ), although not all populations show this difference (Hantak et al., 2020 ). It is worth noting, however, that red‐backed salamanders do appear to forage while in underground refugia (Caldwell, 1975 ; Caldwell & Jones, 1973 ), and it would be interesting to know if the dietary differences observed between the morphs reflect, at least in part, differences in the quality and availability of above‐ and below‐ground prey.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat selection and refuge‐use by a color polymorphic salamander reveal behavioral niche differences

Straub,

Cuomo,

Jimenez

2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Color polymorphic species provide an excellent opportunity to investigate the ecology and evolution of intraspecific niche differences. The red‐backed salamander, Plethodon cinereus, is a fully terrestrial lungless salamander with two common color forms, striped and unstriped. Previous research suggests the morphs may be differentially adapted to surface and subsurface microhabitats, with the unstriped morph being more fossorial. This hypothesis predicts that the unstriped morph should be more sensitive to the risks of surface activity (e.g., thermal stress, dehydration, predation), and therefore be more selective than striped morphs when choosing soil surface microhabitats. To test this hypothesis, we experimentally manipulated leaf litter mass in small forest patches (~0.45 m2). Leaf litter addition reduced soil temperatures, buffered against changes in air temperature, and likely provided physical protection from predators. Over 3 years, we found that unstriped adults responded positively to leaf litter addition, but striped adults did not. In addition, unstriped morphs spent significantly more time in protective refuges (opaque, moistened tubes) than striped morphs in laboratory assays. Taken together, the field and laboratory results support the hypothesis that the unstriped morph is more sensitive to the risks of surface activity, and therefore is more likely to be fossorial. This difference in microhabitat use, combined with spatiotemporal variation in leaf litter accumulation on the forest floor, may play an important role in the maintenance of the polymorphism.

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“…Moreover, one of the difficulties in drawing conclusions about temperature tolerance and color morphology in P. cinereus stems from the large geographic range (Petranka, 1998) and resulting genetic diversity of the species (Radomski et al, 2020). Studies that are limited to one or a few populations may find relationships that do not hold in other parts of the geographic range (Hantak et al, 2020). For example, Moreno (1989) used salamanders from the Northern Clade (sensu Radomski et al, 2020) to show that the SMR of the unstriped morph was lower than that of the striped morph at 15°C.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the thermal mismatch hypothesis predict disease outcomes in different morphs of a terrestrial salamander?

et al. 2022

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Many aspects of ectotherm physiology are temperature‐dependent. The immune system of temperate‐dwelling ectothermic host species is no exception and their immune function is often downregulated in cold temperatures. Likewise, species of ectothermic pathogens experience temperature‐mediated effects on rates of transmission and/or virulence. Although seemingly straightforward, predicting the outcomes of ectothermic host−pathogen interactions is quite challenging. A recent hypothesis termed the thermal mismatch hypothesis posits that cool‐adapted host species should be most susceptible to pathogen infection during warm temperature periods whereas warm‐adapted host species should be most susceptible to pathogens during periods of cool temperatures. We explore this hypothesis using two ecologically and physiologically differentiated color morphs of the Eastern Red‐backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) and a pathogenic chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis; hereafter “Bd”) using a fully factorial laboratory experiment. At cool temperatures, unstriped salamanders (i.e., those that are tolerant of warm temperatures) had a significantly higher probability of Bd infection compared with cool‐tolerant striped salamanders, consistent with the thermal mismatch hypothesis. However, we found no support for this hypothesis when salamanders were exposed to Bd at warm temperatures: the probability of Bd infection in the cool‐tolerant striped salamanders was nearly identical in both cool and warm temperatures, opposite the predictions of the thermal mismatch hypothesis. Our results are most consistent with the fact that Bd grows poorly at warm temperatures. Alternatively, our data could indicate that the two color morphs do not differ in their tolerance to warm temperatures but that striped salamanders are more tolerant to cool temperatures than unstriped salamanders.

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A Spatiotemporal Assessment of Dietary Partitioning between Color Morphs of a Terrestrial Salamander

Cited by 6 publications

References 68 publications

Rapid phenotypic change in a polymorphic salamander over 43 years

Rapid phenotypic change in a polymorphic salamander over 43 years

Habitat selection and refuge‐use by a color polymorphic salamander reveal behavioral niche differences

Does the thermal mismatch hypothesis predict disease outcomes in different morphs of a terrestrial salamander?

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