Body Size, Age Structure and Survival Rates in Two Populations of the Beyşehir Frog Pelophylax Caralitanus
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Herpetozoa 32: 195–201 (2019) DOI 10.3897/herpetozoa.32.e35772 Body size, age structure and survival rates in two populations of the Beyşehir frog Pelophylax caralitanus Ayşen Günay Arısoy1, Eyup Başkale1 1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Science, Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey http://zoobank.org/CB8114C2-E46E-4D17-A1BE-C8E1D43457CD Corresponding author: Eyup Başkale ([email protected]; [email protected]) Academic editor: Günter Gollmann ♦ Received 29 April 2019 ♦ Accepted 29 August 2019 ♦ Published 10 September 2019 Abstract In many amphibians, skeletochronology is a reliable tool for assessing individual mean longevity, growth rates and age at sexual maturity. We used this approach to determine the age structure of 162 individuals from two Pelophylax caralitanus populations. All individuals exhibited Lines of Arrested Growth (LAGs) in the bone cross-sections and the average age varied between 4.5 and 5.4 years in both Işıklı and Burdur populations. Although intraspecific age structure and sex-specific age structure did not differ signifi- cantly between populations, we found that the Işıklı population had a lower body size in the same age class, had lower growths rates and lower values of survival rates and adult life expectancy than the Burdur population. Key Words Amphibia, longevity, age at sexual maturity, growth rates, survival rate Introduction Growth rate and body size are important intraspecific uses seasonally variable physiological activity, has proven characteristics for adult amphibians. Skeletochronology to be an excellent tool in evaluating population age mod- is a reliable tool for assessing individual mean longevity, els in amphibian species (Esteban and Sanchiz 2000). growth rates and age at sexual maturity (Castanet et al. Pelophylax caralitanus, Beyşehir frog (Arıkan, 1988) 1993; Smirina 1994). Lines of Arrested Growth (LAGs) was originally described as a nominant subspecies of are annually developed in the long bones during periods Pelophylax ridibundus by Bodenheimer (1944). Arıkan of unfavourable growing conditions, such as winter and (1988) described the Beyşehir population from Lake they allow accurate calculations for determining the age Beyşehir as a new subspecies (R. r. caralitana), based on of anurans. This technique was successfully performed on morphometric characters. However, Beerli et al. (1994) the phalanges of many amphibian species, hence it rep- claimed that R. r. caralitana is not a new subspecies resents a powerful technique (Olgun et al. 2005; Guarino and that R. r. caralitana and Rana levantina should be and Erişmiş 2008; Üzüm and Olgun 2009; Üzüm et al. regarded as synonyms of Rana [Pelophylax] bedriagae. 2011; Altunışık and Özdemir 2013; Sinsch 2015). This The subsequent karyological, morphological, genetic and technique is also used for other endangered species and bio-acoustical studies on the taxonomy of the Beyşehir allows individuals to be marked for field study and skele- population showed that R. r. caralitana is different from tal elements to be obtained for skeletochronology without both Pelophylax ridibundus and Pelophylax bedriagae sacrificing the individuals (Castanet and Smirina 1990; (Arıkan et al. 1994; Alpagut and Falakalı 1995; Budak Guarino et al. 1999). In addition, this technique, which et al. 2000; Kaya et al. 2002). As a result of taxonom- Copyright Ayşen Günay Arısoy, Eyup Başkale. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 196 Ayşen Günay Arısoy & Eyup Başkale: Age structure of Pelophylax caralitanus ic assessments, P. caralitanus is an endemic species of Snout-Vent Lengths (SVL) were obtained with a dial cal- Turkey and is distributed only within the Anatolian Lake iper at a 0.02 mm accuracy. We determined the sex of the District and Konya plain of Turkey (Jdeidi 2000; Plötner individuals, based on the secondary sexual organs: males et al. 2001). Previous studies have shown that P. carali- have tubercules on the first finger of their front foot and a tanus lives in permanent wetlands with rich aquatic veg- paired vocal sac on their head. etation, including ponds, rain ponds, streams, rivers and irrigation canals (Arıkan 1988; Atatür et al. 1989–1990, Jdeidi 2000; Plötner et al. 2001; Kaya et al. 2002; Düşen Laboratory studies et al. 2004; Başkale and Çapar 2016; Başkale et al. 2017). Pelophylax caralitanus has been listed as Near Threat- According to the skeletochronology study literature, ened (NT) because of ongoing threats from habitat loss to determine the age of the species, the longest digit of and over-exploitation (Öz et al. 2009). the hind foot was removed and fixed in 70% ethanol. The primary aim of our study was to determine the The skeletochronology procedure followed the previous sex-specific variability of age and size at maturity and studies (Castanet and Smirina 1990; Castanet et al. 1993; longevity of P. caralitanus. We also discuss the age distri- Smirina 1994). The bones of each animal were cleaned bution of a cognate species in different geographic ranges. from the tissues, washed in running water for 12–14 h, decalcified for 4–6 h in 5% nitric acid and then placed in distilled water overnight. The bones were dehydrated Materials and methods using graded ethanol and then cleared in xylene, before embedding in paraffin. Using a rotary microtome, we Study sites obtained 14–16 µm thick cross-sections from the cen- tral region of the diaphysis, stained them with Ehrlich’s Our study was performed on Burdur Lake and Işıklı Lake. Haematoxylin and Eosin and analysed them under an Both lakes, which have been fed by an underground water Olympus CX31 light microscope that was equipped with source, rain and other permanent water sources for many a digital camera, Kameram 5. The age of the amphibian years, are natural habitats for amphibians. was determined by two of the authors who independently The Burdur Lake population (37°38'N, 30°03'E; 859 counted the number of Lines of Arrested Growth (LAGs) m a.s.l.) is located adjacent to villages of Burdur prov- present in each of the bone sections. ince. Burdur Lake covers 250 km2 and attains a maximum depth of 110 m. This area is surrounded by agricultural land and consists of a small wetland and a channel that Statistical analyses is connected to Burdur Lake. The periphery and water body of this site is densely covered by aquatic vegeta- The data were normally distributed (Kolmogor- tion. Agricultural activities, such as supplying water for ov-Smirnov D test, all P > 0.05), thus allowing compar- irrigation and amateur fishing (forCarassius gibelio), are isons using parametric tests. We used an independent performed on this site. samples t test to compare the sexes morphometrically. Işıklı Lake population (38°12'N, 29°49'E; 820 m a.s.l.) We assumed that the age at first reproduction (Age at is located in Çivril, Denizli province. Işıklı Lake covers Maturity: AM) is the lowest age recorded amongst the 73 km2 and has a maximum depth of 7 m. This area is breeding individuals. surrounded by settlements and agricultural areas and con- The sexual dimorphism index (SDI) was calculated as sists of small streams and man-made channels. There is SDI = (mean length of the larger sex / mean length of also an energy power plant on the southwest of the lake. the smaller sex) ±1. The plus-minus sign (±) gives +1 if The periphery and water body of this site are covered by males are larger than females, defining the result as neg- aquatic vegetation. At irregular intervals, trees such as ative and –1 if females are larger than males, defining the Salix sp. and broken branches of these trees have floated result as positive. This formula was generated by Lovich on the water surface. Agricultural activities, such as sup- and Gibbons (1992). plying water for irrigation, have caused a considerable Growth was estimated according to the Bertalanffy decrease in the water level of the lake (up to 3 m) from equation (Bertalanffy 1938) which was previously used July to September. Additionally, camping, picnic activi- in several studies on amphibians (Miaud et al. 2001; Gül ties and amateur fishing (forEsox lucius and Tinca tinca) et al. 2011; Üzüm et al. 2011; Erişmiş 2018). The modi- are undertaken on this site. fied growth formula is; SVL = SVL -(SVL –SVL )e-k(t-tmet) Field studies t max max met where SVLt is the average body length at age t; SVLmax is Individuals of P. caralitanus were captured by two or the asymptotic maximum body length; SVLmet is the body three persons with a dip net or by hand after sunset using length at metamorphosis that was used to calculated new- flashlights during the 2015–2018 breeding seasons. The ly metamorphosed individuals at the end of the summer herpetozoa.pensoft.net Herpetozoa 32: 195–201 (2019) 197 (25–30 August 2018) (fixed to mean 32.7 ± 3.415 mm for the Burdur population and 31.9 ± 3.625 mm for the Işıklı population); k is the body growth rate coefficient (units -1 are yr ) that defines the shape of curve; mett is the age at metamorphosis (0.3). The parameters SVLmax and k and their asymptotic confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by non-linear regression. Annual growth rate (AGR) is the rate of the difference between the mean SVL of the individuals in each age group i and the mean SVL in each age group i-1 (AGR= the mean SVL of the Agei - the mean SVL of the Agei-1 / The mean SVL of the Agei-1). This formula was obtained from Erişmiş (2018). All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS ver. 20.0 (SPSS 2011).