Prey Selection by Anurans in Subtemperate Swamps of the Extreme South of Brazil

Oliveira, Mateus de; Dalzochio, Marina Schmidt; Santos, Nathália Luiz Pio da Silva dos; Tozetti, Alexandro Marques

doi:10.2994/sajh-d-17-0005

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…A recent study that compared trophic niches of frogs from the Caatinga (dry region) with frogs from the Atlantic Forest (mesic region) of Brazil similarly found lower prey availability and lower niche overlap in the dry region (Caldas et al 2019). In our study, trophic niche overlap was higher for frogs in the wetland where primary productivity and prey availability were greater, which implies a lack of competition for food resources in the coastal wetland (Oliveira et al 2019).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 49%

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Trophic structure of frog assemblages in coastal habitats in southern Brazil

et al. 2020

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We evaluated the hypothesis that contrasting environmental conditions in a coastal wetland and nearby sand dunes results in frog assemblages with divergent trophic structures. We predicted that the more productive habitat (wetland) would have higher diversity of primary producers and frogs with larger trophic niches and greater interspecific dietary overlap when compared to the less-productive dune habitat. Stomach content analysis (SCA) and stable isotope analysis (SIA) were used to compare frog trophic ecology in the two habitats. We compared trophic niche size (Shannon's index) and overlap (Pianka's index; isotopic ellipse area, SEA c). Bayesian isotope mixing models were used to estimate relative contributions of basal production sources to frog biomass in each habitat. Estimates indicated that wetland frogs assimilated material from diverse basal sources (suspended particulate organic matter (POM), C 3 plants, periphyton), whereas frogs inhabiting dunes assimilated material mostly originating from C 3 plants. Both SCA and SIA revealed less trophic overlap among frogs from the sand dunes compared with those from the wetland. Dietary overlap was greater than expected at random for frogs in both the wetland and dunes. Mean overlap among isotopic ellipses (SEAc) of all frogs at each habitat was higher in the wetland (0.14&) than in the dunes (0.04&). These findings corroborate our prediction that trophic structure in the wetland is more complex than in the sand dunes. Also, as expected, we observed greater isotopic niche segregation among frogs in the sand dunes, a potential mechanism that reduces competition for limited food resources.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 49%

“…In our study, trophic niche overlap was higher for frogs in the wetland where primary productivity and prey availability were greater, which implies a lack of competition for food resources in the coastal wetland (Oliveira et al . 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trophic structure of frog assemblages in coastal habitats in southern Brazil

et al. 2020

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“…Most studies on anuran diet are based on the quantification and description of food items and their relative importance for the species' trophic ecology (Moser et al, 2017;Dias et al, 2018;Farina et al, 2018;Moser et al, 2019;Oliveira et al, 2019). However, current ecological studies reinforce the importance of using approaches that integrate the species' ecological-evolutionary (e.g., Queiroz et al, 2015;Marques et al, 2019;Dalmolin et al, 2019), which includes the relationship within functional traits (such as morphological traits) and ecological variables.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predator morphology affects prey consumption: evidence from an anuran population in subtropical wetlands

Mendonça

Dalmolin

Schuck

et al. 2020

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1Morphology and diet are key factors in the ecology of organisms, determining aspects of 2 natural history and evolution of the species. In this work, we evaluated the diet-3 morphology relationship in an anuran population, measuring the influence of 4 morphological traits on the variation in the diet of individuals of Leptodactylus latrans. 5 For this purpose, we collected individuals from a natural grassland habitat in southern 6 Brazil. We analyzed the stomach content of individuals and consumed food items were 7 classified up to the level of order. We also measured four morphological traits per 8 individual of L. latrans: snout-vent length, relative limb length, distance between eyes 9 and relative mouth width. We applied Linear Mixed Effect Models to evaluate the 10 relationship of anuran morphological traits, number of prey taxa and volume of consumed 11 prey. We tested the hypothesis that the configuration of predator morphological traits 12 determines both the number of taxa and the volume of consumed prey. Our results 13 indicate that individuals of L. latrans with larger body size consume a larger volume of 14 prey and mouth width is directly and positively associated with the number of consumed 15 taxa. In the same way that body size seems to define the capacity to ingest a large number 16 of prey items, mouth width could be a limiting factor in prey selection. The capacity to 17 consume a large prey volume could be an advantage in unpredictable environments, 18 especially those with great daily thermal amplitudes such as the subtropical Brazilian 19 grasslands. 20

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