Critical Thermal Limits Do Not Vary between Wild-caught and Captive-bred Tadpoles of Agalychnis spurrelli (Anura: Hylidae)

Pol Pintanel,Freddy Almeida-Reinoso,Miguel Tejedo,Luis Miguel Gutiérrez-Pesquera,Andrés Merino-Viteri

doi:10.3390/d12020043

Pol Pintanel, Freddy Almeida-Reinoso + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/d12020043

Copy DOI

Abstract

Captive-bred organisms are widely used in ecology, evolution and conservation research, especially in scenarios where natural populations are scarce or at risk of extinction. Yet, it is still unclear whether captivity may alter thermal tolerances, crucial traits to predict species resilience to global warming. Here, we study whether captive-bred tadpoles of the gliding treefrog (Agalychnis spurrelli) show different thermal tolerances than wild-caught individuals. Our results show that there are no differences between critical thermal limits (CTmax and CTmin) of captive-bred and wild-caught tadpoles exposed to three-day acclimatization at 20 °C. Therefore, we suggest that the use of captive-bred amphibians is valid and may be appropriate in experimental comparisons to thermal physiological studies of wild populations.

Highlights

Understanding how critical thermal limits in ectotherms vary through space and time has become of central importance in studies of ecology and evolution [1,2]
The methodology employed to estimate critical thermal limits may lead to different estimates
Variation in the rate of heating/cooling [9,12], acclimation period [13], temperature during acclimation period [14], the photoperiod [15], the chosen end-point [16,17] or even whether experimental organisms were obtained from field or laboratory [18,19]

Summary

Introduction

Understanding how critical thermal limits in ectotherms vary through space and time has become of central importance in studies of ecology and evolution [1,2]. Most macro-ecological studies assume invariability in thermal limits within species and do not consider, for example, changes arising during ontogeny, space and time (e.g., [7,8,9,10,11]). Sources of intraspecific variation arising from the captive environment are an important consideration in experimental biology, since many ecological, evolutionary and conservation studies on thermal tolerances have employed captive-bred species (e.g., [20,21,22])

Methods

Results

Conclusion