Body Condition of Pseudis Minuta Günther, 1858 (Anura: Hylidae) Inhabiting an Agroecosystem from South Santa Fe Province, Argentina
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Herpetology Notes, volume 12: 13-17 (2019) (published online on 09 January 2019) Body condition of Pseudis minuta Günther, 1858 (Anura: Hylidae) inhabiting an agroecosystem from south Santa Fe Province, Argentina Josefina Vera-Candioti1,2,*, María Florencia D’Andrea1,3, and Julie Celine Brodeur1,3 Abstract. We present the first data on the body condition of P. minuta adults in a pond associated with an agroecosystem of the south Santa Fe Province, Argentina. Fieldwork was conducted from November 2012 to December 2013. Females and males did not differ in body condition, weight, nor length. However, males from December 2013 were in better condition than males from November 2012. Similarly, females from January 2013 were in better condition than those registered in November 2012. Our report provides for the first time an observation of the species in a landscape dominated by intensive agriculture in southern Santa Fe Province, corresponding to the Pampean region. Further studies should investigate habitat conditions and resources that allow the growth and development of this population of P. minuta in order to ensure its long-term permanence in the region. Keywords. Lesser swimming frog, croplands, residual index, Humid Pampas Introduction al., 2011), habitat quality (Scheele et al., 2014), and population size (Unglaub et al., 2018). In this sense, in Body condition is an important determinant of the Argentina, a reducing condition factor has been clearly health and fitness of an individual, a proxy of energy demonstrated in frogs from agricultural lands (Brodeur reserves, a nondestructive index, useful and necessary et al., 2011). tool in ecology (Schulte-Hostedde et al., 2005; Peig Body condition indices, such as the residual index and Green, 2010). Several authors have addressed the (Schulte-Hostedde et al., 2005), have been previously relationship between body condition of anurans and used in several studies for determining body condition their food intake, fecundity, survival, anti-predator differences amongst amphibian populations (Denoël response, proportion of life stages, and call structure et al., 2002; Băncilă et al., 2010; Scheele et al., 2014; (e.g., Reading, 2007; McCracken and Stebbings, 2012; Unglaub et al., 2018). Using this approach, frogs from Middleton, 2012; Bennett and Murray, 2014; Ziegler agricultural lands were demonstrated to present a reduced et al., 2016). Body condition is an important proxy of body condition in the Pampa Region of Argentina environmental stress (Băncilă et al., 2010; Brodeur et (Brodeur et al., 2011). Pseudis minuta (Günther, 1858) is a small aquatic anuran species in which females are slightly bigger than males; both genders rarely exceed 48 and 40 mm in snout-vent length, respectively (Ghirardi and López, 2017). Pseudis minuta Kas long 1 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas hind limbs, well-developed interdigital membranes (CONICET), Av. Rivadavia 1917, CP C1033AAJ, Buenos extending to the base of the terminal discs, and a broad Aires, Argentina. head with prominent eyes of dorsal position (Ghirardi 2 Agencia de Extensión Rural INTA Venado Tuerto, España and López, 2017). Males have a double lateral vocal sac 529, Venado Tuerto, Santa Fe, Argentina. (Gallardo, 1987). In Argentina, P. minuta breeds from 3 Instituto de Recursos Biológicos, CNIA-INTA, Castelar, Nicolás Repetto y De Los Reseros 1686, Hurlingham, July to April (Manzano et al., 2004), attaching its eggs to Buenos Aires, Argentina. aquatic vegetation (Noguer, 2000). Tadpoles are much * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] larger than adults, and develop in lentic environments 14 Josefina Vera-Candioti et al. (Manzano et al., 2004). ,t is a generalist-opportunistic Results). We considered juveniles those individuals predator with a broad feeding niche and it usually without subgular pigmentation and an SVL < 30 mm feeds on aquatic preys with large individual biomasses (Melchiors et al., 2004). All procedures involving live (Huckembeck et al., 2014). The conservation status of frogs were conducted according to the guidelines for P. minuta is classified as “Least Concern” (Kwet et al., research with laboratory, farm, and wild animals from 2004) or “Not Threatened” in Argentina (Vaira et al., the National Scientific and Technical Research Council 2012). of Argentina (CONICET, 2005). The distribution of P. minuta encompasses Uruguay, We estimated body condition based on the residual extreme southern Brazil, and northeastern Argentina index according to Băncilă et al. (2010). We calculated (Frost, 2018). In terms of ecoregions, P. minuta occurs this index using log10-transformed data to insure the in the Paraná-Paraba Rainforest, Araucaria Rainforest, linearity of the relationship between W and SVL. The Chaco Savanna, Humid Chaco, Espinal, Humid Pampa, theoretical body weight value of each frog, which was Mesopotamian Savanna and Flood Savanna of Paraná obtained by introducing the length of the animal into (Lavilla, 2005). In Argentina, P. minuta has been the equation of the regression line, was subtracted from mainly associated with large rivers, protected areas, the measured body weights in order to obtain the value lands used for cattle breeding and in anthropized, rural, of the ‘‘residual’’, a representation of body condition or semi-urban environments (Noguer, 2000; Manzano (Denoël et al., 2002; Băncilă et al., 2010; Scheele et al., et al., 2004; Guzmán and Raffo, 2011; Agostini, 2013; 2014). Ghirardi and López, 2017). Within Santa Fe Province, the We compared body size, body weight and, residuals known distribution of P. minuta encompasses the North describing body condition between sexes and within Salado River basin, the Paraná River basin (Ghirardi the same sex, between different sampling dates, using a and López, 2017), and the southwestern section of the one-way ANOVA, followed by Fisher Least Significant province, which corresponds to the headwater of the Difference for multiple ranges comparisons (Fisher’s South Salado River (Vera-Candioti et al., 2018). LSD). We verified normality and equal variance of We provide here the first data on the body condition of the data before conducting all ANOVAs and multiple Pseudis minuta in an agroecosystem from south Santa comparisons. We used Kruskal-Wallis one-way Fe Province. analysis of variance on ranks (KW) when normality or homogeneity of variance could not be obtained, even Materials and Methods after transformation. The criterion for significance was set at P < 0.05, in all cases. All analyses and graphs were The study area is located along National Route Nº 33, performed using Statgraphics Centurion XV statistical 25 km southwest of Venado Tuerto City, General López software (StatPoint, Inc., Virginia, USA) and GraphPad Department, Santa Fe Province, Argentina (33.8752ºS, Prism Version 5.00 (GraphPad Software, Inc., USA). 62.2211ºW). Field samplings were conducted in November 2012, Results January and December 2013, as part of a long-term study of anuran from agroecosystems in south Santa Fe, We present here the first data on body condition Argentina. We captured specimens of P. minuta on a of P. minuta adults in a pond associated with an permanent pond with aquatic vegetation of 8.4 ha of total agroecosystem area of the South Santa Fe Province, area and 48 cm of maximum depth. Native grassland Argentina. We registered 60 individuals (2 juveniles, separated the pond from a corn crop on one side (70 m 39 adult males, and 19 adult females) (Table 1). The of distance), and a soybean crop on the other side (100 m larger number of captures occurred in November 2012 of distance). We captured frogs by hand, measured them with 29 frogs sampled. The relationship between SVL on site, and immediately released specimens at the same and W was described by the following linear regression site of capture. We measured snout-vent length (SVL) equation: log W = -9.31518 + 3.026 x log SVL (Fig. with an electronic caliper (± 1 mm), and body weight 1). Body condition of males and females did not differ (W) with a Sartorius portable electronic balance (± (ANOVA, P = 0.85; F value: 0.036; df: 1); neither 0.001 g). We determined sex by the presence (in males), W (Kruskal-Wallis, P = 0.57; Q value: 0.327; df: 1); or absence (in females), of subgular pigmentation nor SVL (ANOVA, P = 0.31; F value: 1.039; df: 1). (Ghirardi and López, 2017). We excluded juveniles On the other hand, residual index indicated that males from the analyses because of the small sample size (see exhibited a better condition in December 2013 than in Body condition of Pseudis minuta inhabiting an agroecosystem, Argentina 15 Table 1. Mean, SE (Standard Error), and range (min-max) of body mass and snout-vent length of Pseudis minuta in an agroecosystem from south Santa Fe Province. -- - -$- - " - - -$- -- - --" - -" - - - - - - - - +/ +%&+-$-&%(&-)%')#'&%+, - ).%&,-$-&%+,-)'%&/#+/%&& - (- (%*'-$-&%('-(%(#(%,( - (/%)(-$-&%.+-(.%+.#(%&, - - -- -- - - ) *%.(-$-&%'(-)%')#,%(' - ),%,,-$-&%,)-)'%'#+/%& - - - ' +%.(-$-&%++-)%('#'&%+, - ).%//-$-'%'*-)'%&/#*.%, November 2012 (ANOVA, P < 0.05; F value: 6.539; and suggests that ecologically relevant parameters df: 1); whereas females demonstrated better condition such as reproductive output and survival were perhaps in January 2013 than in November 2012 (ANOVA, P < affected (Brodeur et al., 2011). 0.01; F value: 14.499; df: 1) (Fig. 2). Body condition is influenced by habitat quality (e.g., resource availability, food intake, humid