Abstract
Natural diets of anuran larvae vary widely in their relative amounts of nutrients. The proportion of these ingested nutrients has significant influence on larval and post-metamorphic performance. Here, we use the Common Toad to address the role of diet (exclusively carnivore, exclusively vegetarian and mixed) on growth and development of tadpoles and short-term carry-over effects on post-metamorphic animals. Larvae fed on an exclusively vegetarian diet performed better (faster growth and development) than larvae fed on exclusively carnivore and mixed diets. Larvae fed on the exclusively carnivore diet had the lowest performance. Regarding the carry-over effects of larval diets, although the body condition indices of the toadlets were similar in all treatments, there was a major difference in the survival rate. While toadlets, originating from larvae fed on a vegetarian diet, were more successful and had the lowest mortality, those fed on a carnivore diet had the highest mortality level. Our results suggest that a plant-based diet may contain all the necessary nutrients needed by Bufobufo larvae. Furthermore, a diet based exclusively on food of animal origin might be detrimental for the larval performance and could have significant carry-over effects on the post-metamorphic animal.
Highlights
Anuran larvae are essential components of many fresh-water communities
Tadpoles show great morphological diversity and inhabit a wide variety of microhabitats (Altig and Johnston 1989). They are capable of high trophic adaptation and physiological plasticity (e.g. Horiuchi and Koshida 1989), allowing them to considerably expand their ability to use a large variety of resources in stressful conditions
At the second post-metamorphic measurement, we found no significant differences between BCI of toads from different treatments (Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test: Chi2 = 81.49, DF = 80, P = 0.43)
Summary
Anuran larvae are essential components of many fresh-water communities Their presence in these ecosystems is predominantly seasonal, reaching high densities and biomass (Schiesari et al 2009) and, substantially altering the balance between demographic density and resource availability and quality (Kupferberg 1997; Altig et al 2007; Connelly et al 2008). This balance can further be altered by global climate change and its effect on aquatic ecosystems, adding its contribution to the alarming rate of amphibian decline (Stuart et al 2004; Lips et al 2005). The trophic plasticity of anuran larvae can be very dynamic, ranging from herbivory to carnivory and includes predation (Richmond 1947; Ritchie 1982; Petranka and Kennedy 1999) and cannibalism (Heyer et al 1975; Petranka and Kennedy 1999), scavenging, oophagy (Heusser 1971; Banks and Beebee 1987; Petranka et al 1994), coprophagy, filter-feeding and hindgut microbial fermentation (Viertel 1983; Pryor 2014)
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