Trait-environment relationship in tadpoles of the southern Atlantic Forest

Abstract

Environmental predictors select individuals by their functional traits, shaping the anuran assembly patterns. Individuals respond to environmental filters that can be on a local or regional scale.In this study, we investigated the association between local (water and microhabitat) and landscape variables and the morphological traits of tadpoles of ponds and streams. The study was conducted in the southern region of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We sampled 28 waterbodies and recorded 22 anurans species. We performed RLQ and fourth-corner analyses to determine the patterns of trait-environment relationships and determine which environmental and landscape variables influence the morphological characteristics of tadpoles from streams and ponds. We found that the morphological traits of tadpoles are influenced mainly by physicochemical and microhabitat attributes, being distinct between ponds and streams. In ponds, water depth, pH, and the presence of vegetation influence the morphological traits of the tadpoles, while in the streams water pH, temperature, conductivity, total alkalinity, Alk HCO3, and microhabitat variables played a major role in defining the traits. Our results indicate that local components of habitat (water characteristics and microhabitat) influence functional traits of tadpoles in both ponds and streams, especially those supposedly related to locomotory, foraging and prey-detection abilities.