Better in the dark: two Mediterranean amphibians synchronize reproduction with moonlit nights

Vignoli, Leonardo; Luiselli, Luca

doi:10.5194/we-13-1-2013

Cited by 29 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Therefore, exploration of the relationship between animal behavior and weather is essential for a reliable description of population parameters (Cresswell et al 1999;Orrock et al 2004;Díaz et al 2010;Upham and Hafner 2013;Vignoli and Luiselli 2013). Rodents are expected to be particularly sensitive to changes in weather conditions for several reasons.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

It is raining mice and voles: which weather conditions influence the activity of Apodemus flavicollis and Myodes glareolus?

Wróbel

Bogdziewicz

2015

Eur J Wildl Res

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Rodents constitute a crucial part of food chains in many ecosystems; thus, changes in their activity might influence many other species in the community. Moreover, daily variations in activity appear to be an important adaptation, helping rodents to cope with fluctuating intensity of predation pressure and food availability. We investigated how the nightly activity of the yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis) and the bank vole (Myodes glareolus) changes with weather conditions. Increased cloud cover enhanced activity of mice, but this effect tended to be weaker during the full moon. In turn, the activity of bank voles was positively influenced by moon phase regardless of cloud cover. Temperature had a negative effect on the activity of both species. Rainfall positively influenced A. flavicollis capture numbers, but tended to decrease the activity of M. glareolus. Therefore, while the activity of both mice and voles was under a strong influence of weather variables, their responses to weather were largely species specific.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

It is raining mice and voles: which weather conditions influence the activity of Apodemus flavicollis and Myodes glareolus?

Wróbel

Bogdziewicz

2015

Eur J Wildl Res

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“…light at the ground during the moon cycle) and in different ecosystems, the above mentioned decision-making processes may depend on a suite of selective pressures, including the variation in prédation risk. Although moon effects on amphibian biology have been recognized (Church, 1960a(Church, , 1960bByrne et al, 2002;Grant et al, 2009Grant et al, , 2013Vignoli and Luiselli, 2013), the direction of this infiuence is rather controversial with evidences of both increased activity (Tuttle and Ryan, 1982;Grant et al, 2009;Yetman and Ferguson, 2011), and depressed activity (Church, 1960b;Fitzgerald and Bider, 1974;Grant et al, 2009;Vignoli and Luiselli, 2013) under the full moon. Anurans may be able to respond directly to changing moonlight (antipredator and/or foraging behaviours; Kotier et al, 2001), or may present an endogenous cycle with lunar periodicity (Ralph, 1956).…”

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confidence: 96%

“…with no lighting pollution), the alternation between full and new moon phase may determine a huge variation in surface lightning intensity. A recent study (Vignoli and Luiselli, 2013) has demonstrated a direct effect of the moonlight on anuran spawning activity, pointing out that two species reproducing in open habitats synchronize their breeding activity (oviposition) with the synodic moon cycle by avoiding the moonlit nights. In addition, these anurans did not show any endogenous rhythm related to moon cycle, being their behaviour influenced by the light condition determined by both moon phases and cloud cover.…”

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confidence: 98%

Contrasted influences of moon phases on the reproduction and movement patterns of four amphibian species inhabiting different habitats in central Italy

et al. 2014

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Many studies have provided evidence that prey adjust their behaviour to adaptively balance the fitness effects of reproduction and prédation risk. Nocturnal terrestrial animals should deal with a range of environmental conditions during the reproductive season at the breeding sites, including a variable amount of natural ambient light. High degrees of illumination are expected to minimize those behaviours that might increase the animal detection by predators. Therefore, under habitat variable brightness conditions and in different ecosystems, the above mentioned hehaviours are expected to depend on the variation in prédation risk. Although moon effects on amphibian biology have been recognized, the direction of this infiuence is rather controversial with evidences of both increased and depressed activity under full moon. We tested in four noctumal amphibian species {Hyla intermedia. Rana dalmatina. Rana itálica. Salamandrina perspicillata) the effects of different (i) light conditions and (ii) habitats (open land vs. dense forest) on the reproductive phenology. Our results showed that the effeets of the lunar cycle on the study species are associated with the change in luminosity, and there is no evidenee of an endogenous rhythm controlled by biological clocks. The habitat type conditioned the amphibian reproductive strategy in relation to moon phases. Open habitat breeders (e.g., ponds with no canopy cover) strongly avoided conditions with high brightness, whereas forest habitat breeders were apparently unaffected by the different moon phases. Indeed, for all the studied species no effects of the moon phase itself on the considered metrics were found. Rather, the considered amphibian species seem to be conditioned mainly by moonlight irrespective of the moon phase. The two anurans spawning in open habitat apparently adjust their oviposition timing hy balancing the fitness effeets of the risk to be detected by predators and the reproduction.

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“…1). Greater activity at New Moon has been reported in several species (Church, 1960; Ferguson, 1960;FitzGerald and Bider, 1974a;Grant et al, 2012;Vignoli and Luiselli, 2013). The main explanations for amphibian's response to the lunar cycle are predator avoidance and reproduction synchronization (Church, 1960;Grant et al, 2012;Vignoli and Luiselli, 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This hypothesis seems especially plausible given the recent finding that the two spectrally different kinds of rod photoreceptors (so-called red and green rods) in amphibians enable color vision at very low light levels (Yovanovich et al, in press). Still, reproductive success is maximized if conspecifics reach the same breeding area at the same period of time, minimizing energetic cost of reproduction and, predation risk by dissolution and increasing the number of available breeding adults (Grant et al, 2012;Vignoli and Luiselli, 2013).Rainfall and temperature have been reported as the most important meteorological predictors of anuran activity (Zug et al, 2001; Oseen and Wasersug, 2002) due to their effect on the metabolism of ectothermic species (Bellis, 1962;Sinsch, 1988; Sanabria et al, 2003). Our results showed that both rainfall and temperature played important roles in the distances L. latrans moved.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecologia do movimento da rã-manteiga (Leptodactylus latrans) e da rã-touro (Lithobates catesbeianus)

Henrique¹

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oportunidade do conhecimento e crescimento acadêmico através da realização deste trabalho. Agradeço a Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estrado de São Paulo(FAPESP) e ao Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) por financiar os equipamentos e saídas à campo (Processo FAPESP 2012-10000-5) e pela bolsa de estudo de pós-graduação (Processo CNPq 134324/2015-5) Agradeço ao meu orientador, Prof. Dr. Taran Grant, pela orientação e pela oportunidade e confiança na execução do projeto de mestrado do qual este trabalho foi resultado.Agradeço a Dra. Camila Both, pelos comentários e ajuda na elaboração do meu projeto de mestrado e durante o planejamento e execução das atividades com radiotelemetria de rã-touro. Agradeço também a Ma. Camila Ineu Medeiros por proporcionar minhas primeiras experiências práticas com a biologia da invasão da rã-touro, em seus experimentos em campo em que pude participar.Agradeço a todos os queridos amigos do Laboratório de Anfíbios do IB-USP por toda a ajuda, conversas, discussões e momentos de distração que permearam nossas convivências durante o período em que estive no laboratório. Agradeço em especial ao Gabriel Jorgewich Cohen por toda a ajuda nos diversos campos, por todos os dias e noites que nos encharcamos em brejos e poças, por toda rã-touro que nos escapou pelos dedos e por toda a ajuda e risada em momentos de frustação. Agradeço também as amizades que construí no Departamento de Zoologia do IB-USP, no Museu de Zoologia da USP e na organização dos Cursos de Verão emZoologia, que durante a execução deste trabalho me ajudaram em diversas situações.Agradeço a minha família e aos meus amigos que, mesmo não compreendendo muito bem a vida acadêmica, me apoiaram e respeitaram as minhas escolhas.Agradecimentos específicos encontram-se no final de cada capítulo. INTRODUÇÃO GERALO movimento dos animais desempenha papel importante na aptidão dos indivíduos, no fluxo gênico, na dinâmica de metapopulações e na persistência, a longo prazo, de espécies em um ambiente Pittman et al., 2014).As diferentes estratégias de vida das espécies refletem-se em diferentes padrões de movimentos que exigem diferentes requerimentos ecológicos (Duellman & Trueb, 1994). Para a maioria das espécies, esses movimentos são fundamentais para forragear, reproduzir, evitar condições ambientais severas, e evitar ou escapar de predadores (Zug et al., 2001).A maioria dos anfíbios é conhecida por se mover relativamente pouco durante toda a vida quando comparados com outros vertebrados (Zug et al., 2001). Da eclosão do ovo à morte, um anfíbio muda seu padrão de movimento em resposta a diferentes requerimentos ecológicos. Indivíduos recém metamorfoseados de espécies que se reproduzem em poças, por exemplo, emigram de suas poças natal para se instalarem em suas áreas de vida individuais.A área de vida de um indivíduo pode ser definida como um mapa cognitivo estabelecido pela relação entre o meio ambiente e a percepção do mesmo pelo animal. Essa relação constrói uma área na memória do animal dos luga...

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Better in the dark: two Mediterranean amphibians synchronize reproduction with moonlit nights

Cited by 29 publications

References 69 publications

It is raining mice and voles: which weather conditions influence the activity of Apodemus flavicollis and Myodes glareolus?

It is raining mice and voles: which weather conditions influence the activity of Apodemus flavicollis and Myodes glareolus?

Contrasted influences of moon phases on the reproduction and movement patterns of four amphibian species inhabiting different habitats in central Italy

Ecologia do movimento da rã-manteiga (Leptodactylus latrans) e da rã-touro (Lithobates catesbeianus)

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