Abstract
Most amphibians migrate between flooded habitats for breeding and dry habitats for non-breeding activities, however, differences in closely related species may highlight divergent evolutionary histories. Through field surveys, Harmonic Direction Finder tracking and laboratory behavioural experiments during the wintering season, we demonstrated differences in seasonal migration and hibernation habitats between Dryophytes suweonensis and D. japonicus. We found that D. japonicus migrated towards forests for overwintering and then back to rice paddies for breeding in spring. By contrast, D. suweonensis was found to hibernate buried in the vicinity of rice paddies, its breeding habitat. We also found that the difference in migrating behaviour matched with variation in microhabitat use during brumation and hibernation between the two species. Our findings highlight different ecological requirements between the two species, which may result from their segregated evolutionary histories, with speciation potentially linked to species use of a new breeding habitat. Additionally, the use of rice paddies for both breeding and hibernation may contribute to the endangered status of D. suweonensis because of the degradation of hibernation sites in winter.
Highlights
Most amphibians migrate between flooded habitats for breeding and dry habitats for non-breeding activities
The field surveys during the brumation period highlighted a clear difference in habitat preference between the two treefrog species: during brumation, D. suweonensis was present at rice paddies only while D. japonicus occurred at both rice paddies and forests (Figure 3)
Our results highlight a significant variation in habitat use: both species were present in rice paddies at the beginning of the surveys, whereas D. suweonensis was in the rice paddies and D. japonicus was in the forests only during the week preceding hibernation
Summary
Most amphibians migrate between flooded habitats for breeding and dry habitats for non-breeding activities. Differences among species in the details of these seasonal variations may highlight divergent evolutionary histories (Wake, 1982), intraspecific variations in life-history strategies are widespread (Collins, 1981; Miaud et al, 1999), and traits covary with environmental gradients such as elevation and latitude (Morrison and Hero, 2003). Aquatic breeding is the shared ancestral character for all species (Wake, 1982; Reiss, 2002; Schoch, 2009). The medium used for breeding typically reflects the ancestral character (Duellman, 1989), whereas migration toward different environments is a more recent evolutionary trait (Semlitsch, 2008). Exceptions do exist, such as for plethodontid salamanders, which retain the larval stage (Chippindale et al, 2004), and for one of the focal hylid species of this study for yet unknown reasons
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