Hot tadpoles from cold environments need more nutrients – life history and stoichiometry reflects latitudinal adaptation

Abstract

Summary1. High-latitude species (and populations within species) are adapted to short and cold summers. They often have high growth and development rates to fully use the short growing season and mature before the onset of winter. 2. Within the context of ecological stoichiometry theory, this study combines ecology with evolution by relating latitudinal life-history adaptations to their molecular consequences in body nutrient composition in Rana temporaria tadpoles. 3. Temperature and food quality were manipulated during the development of tadpoles from Arctic and Boreal origins. We determined tadpole growth rate, development rate, body size and nutrient content, to test whether (i) Arctic tadpoles could realize higher growth rates and development rates with the help of higher-quality food even when food quantity was unchanged, (ii) Arctic and Boreal tadpoles differed in their stoichiometric (and life history) response to temperature changes, (iii) higher growth rates lead to higher tadpole P content (growth rate hypothesis) and (iv) allometric scaling affects tadpole nutrient allocation. 4. We found that especially Arctic tadpoles grew and developed faster with the help of higher-quality food and that tadpoles differed in their stoichiometric (and life history) response to temperature changes depending on region of origin (probably due to different temperature optima). There was no evidence that higher growth rates mediated the positive effect of temperature on tadpole P content. On the contrary, the covariate growth rate was negatively connected with tadpole P content (refuting the growth rate hypothesis). Lastly, tadpole P content was not related to body size, but tadpole C content was higher in larger tadpoles, probably due to increased fat storage. 5. We conclude that temperature had a strong effect on tadpole life history, nutrient demand and stoichiometry and that this effect depended on the evolved life history.

Warming reinforces nonconsumptive predator effects on prey growth, physiology, and body stoichiometry

“…By integrating metabolic ecology and the growth rate hypothesis, we could demonstrate predictable changes in body stoichiometry in the absence of predation risk. Current study together with the very few other ones that looked at the effects of warming (Liess et al 2013) and predation risk (Costello andMichel 2013, Dalton andFlecker 2014) highlighted the interplay of the physiological GSP-responses with behavioral changes affecting food restriction and morphological defenses. Notably, we extended the very few studies that experimentally studied the separate effects of temperature and predation risk on body stoichiometry by also focusing on their combined effects and by quantifying the full set of assumed driving key biomolecules (i.e., RNA : DNA, fat, sugars, and proteins).…”

“…Liess et al (2013) documented similar decreases in C:N and C:P when Rana temporaria tadpoles were reared from the egg stage at 238C compared to 188C. Liess et al (2013) documented similar decreases in C:N and C:P when Rana temporaria tadpoles were reared from the egg stage at 238C compared to 188C.…”

Does the Growth Rate Hypothesis Apply across Temperatures? Variation in the Growth Rate and Body Phosphorus of Neotropical Benthic Grazers

“…This is particularly true in vertebrates, whose skeletal development involves a high P demand (Hendrixson et al, 2007). For this reason, the GRH was not expected to apply to vertebrates, a hypothesis supported by empirical tests with developing frogs (Sterner and Elser, 2002;Liess et al, 2013). However, tadpoles reared at warmer temperatures still had higher %P at metamorphosis, suggesting that developmental temperature could affect skeletal ossification (Liess et al, 2013).…”

“…For this reason, the GRH was not expected to apply to vertebrates, a hypothesis supported by empirical tests with developing frogs (Sterner and Elser, 2002;Liess et al, 2013). However, tadpoles reared at warmer temperatures still had higher %P at metamorphosis, suggesting that developmental temperature could affect skeletal ossification (Liess et al, 2013). On the other hand, more rapidly growing fish exhibit reduced skeletal ossification (Arendt and Wilson, 2000), suggesting that warmer temperatures could reduce somatic %P in vertebrates.…”

Understanding variation in salamander ionomes: A nutrient balance approach

“…In addition to ontogeny, amphibian C:N:P stoichiometry can differ considerably across sites at local scales (Milanovich & Hopton, 2014) due to differences in both bottom-up nutrient supplies (Bumpers et al, 2015;Stephens, Berven, & Tiegs, 2013) and topdown predation pressure (Costello & Michel, 2013). Furthermore, abiotic factors such as hydroperiod and temperature have been shown to alter population-level stoichiometry at decadal scales (Capps et al, 2015) and might explain regional stoichiometric differences through local adaptation of amphibian populations across latitudinal gradients (Liess et al, 2013). Overall, amphibian composition of a handful of elements appears to be highly responsive to many ecological factors, and these changes could result in shifts of other metabolically connected elements ultimately influencing biogeochemical fluxes through aquatic environments.…”