mitchelljs
New member
Hey everyone,
The Journal of Animal Ecology has a new paper out that may be of interest to folks around here: "Habitat traits and species interactions differentially affect abundance and body size in pondbreeding amphibians" by Brittany H. Ousterhout and colleagues.
It's behind a paywall, but I can summarize some of the salient points here: The authors looked at 192 ponds in south-Central Missouri and measured the density and body size of larvae for three species of Ambystoma (A. annulatum, A. opacum, and A. maculatum). Larval densities did not really vary with pond size or pond hydroperiod (ephemeral, seasonal or permanent). However, very few ponds with fish present also had salamander larvae, and the density of larvae in fish with ponds was rather low. Larval body size strongly varies with total larval density, almost regardless of species. If there are more salamander larvae in the pond, then the larvae will be smaller on average. Smaller larvae are less likely to survive, and so there seems to be a tradeoff which the authors discuss like this: " It is unknown whether [salamander] productivity of a pond is maximized by the production of many individuals with low survival, or few individuals with high survival. "
The Journal of Animal Ecology has a new paper out that may be of interest to folks around here: "Habitat traits and species interactions differentially affect abundance and body size in pondbreeding amphibians" by Brittany H. Ousterhout and colleagues.
It's behind a paywall, but I can summarize some of the salient points here: The authors looked at 192 ponds in south-Central Missouri and measured the density and body size of larvae for three species of Ambystoma (A. annulatum, A. opacum, and A. maculatum). Larval densities did not really vary with pond size or pond hydroperiod (ephemeral, seasonal or permanent). However, very few ponds with fish present also had salamander larvae, and the density of larvae in fish with ponds was rather low. Larval body size strongly varies with total larval density, almost regardless of species. If there are more salamander larvae in the pond, then the larvae will be smaller on average. Smaller larvae are less likely to survive, and so there seems to be a tradeoff which the authors discuss like this: " It is unknown whether [salamander] productivity of a pond is maximized by the production of many individuals with low survival, or few individuals with high survival. "