Thesis
CARRY-OVER EFFECTS OF ELEVATED SALINITY AND TEMPERATURE ON WOOD FROG (RANA SYLVATICA) SURVIVAL, GROWTH, AND BEHAVIOR
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
01/2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000005460
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/118947
Abstract
Anthropogenically-induced salinization of freshwater systems due to the application of road de-icing salts and hydrocarbon mining has been identified as a significant environmental stressor for amphibians across the United States. While the effects of salinity during amphibian embryonic and larval stages are fairly well-understood, less is known on whether these effects can carry over to affect post-metamorphic traits. Moreover, it remains unclear if salinity-induced carry-over effects are adaptive or maladaptive for amphibian survival, or if salinity can interact with other environmental conditions, like temperature, to influence amphibian development. To fill in these gaps, we tested the hypothesis that if wood frogs that develop in saline ponds exhibit adaptive plasticity in their osmoregulatory abilities, then individuals raised in elevated salinity environments as larvae would feature greater tolerance to similarly saline post-metamorphic environments (i.e., the match hypothesis). In addition, we also hypothesized that exposure to elevated salinity and temperature during larval development would have measurable impacts on juvenile behaviors. Our results provided no evidence for the match hypothesis, as juveniles reared in high salinities did not survive or grow better in high-salinity soils compared with those in low-salinity soils. However, we do show that juveniles that experienced elevated salinity as larvae tended to increase weight (but not SVL) regardless of post-metamorphic environment, suggesting that there may be differences in food intake or osmoregulation in these animals. We also showed that the interaction between salinity and temperature experienced during the larval stage affects wood frog explorative capacity without necessarily impacting exploitative behavior, providing evidence for behavioral carry-over effects. Taken together, these findings contribute to a growing body of work to show that the larval environment can affect the expression of physiological and behavioral traits after metamorphosis, but how these traits relate to population recruitment still needs to be investigated. Findings from this study also suggests that salinization of both freshwater and woodland soils adjacent to roads has adverse effects on wood frogs in both the aquatic and terrestrial parts of their life cycle.
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Details
- Title
- CARRY-OVER EFFECTS OF ELEVATED SALINITY AND TEMPERATURE ON WOOD FROG (RANA SYLVATICA) SURVIVAL, GROWTH, AND BEHAVIOR
- Creators
- Bernardo Andres Traversari
- Contributors
- Erica J Crespi (Advisor)Caren S Goldberg (Committee Member)Jonah Piovia-Scott (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- School of Biological Sciences
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 65
- Identifiers
- 99900592154501842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis