Abstract
The presence of amphibian larvae is restricted by both biotic and abiotic variables of the environment. Some of these variables are still undetermined in the septentrional eastern Palearctic where Rana amurensis, Strauchbufo raddei and Dryophytes japonicus are found in large numbers. In this study, we sampled 92 sites across Mongolia, Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and measured biotic and abiotic water variables, as well as the height of flooded terrestrial and emergent aquatic vegetation at the breeding site. We determined that the presence of anuran larvae is generally, but not always, linked to pH and temperature. Rana amurensis was not significantly affected by any of the variables measured, while S. raddei was impacted by water conductivity and D. japonicus by pH, temperature and vegetation. Our results highlight a potential risk for these species due to the changes in aquatic variables in response to desertification.
Highlights
All amphibians above 40°N in East Asia rely on water bodies for the development of tadpoles
Out of the 92 water bodies surveyed, we found R. amurensis tadpoles at 25 sites, S. raddei tadpoles at 34 sites and D. japonicus tadpoles at five sites (Fig. 1)
Generalised Linear Model used to determine the impact of the variables on the presence of tadpoles of all species together was significant (χ2 = 159.53, df = 4, p < 0.001), but the results of the model showed that only pH (Wald-χ2 = 62.24, B = 0.15, SE = 0.02, df = 1, p < 0.001) and temperature (Wald-χ2 = 4.79, B = 0.01, SE = 0.01, df = 1, p = 0.029) had a significant impact on the presence of the anuran tadpoles, acknowledging that we did not test for interactions between variables
Summary
All amphibians above 40°N in East Asia rely on water bodies for the development of tadpoles. The characteristics of the aquatic environment is an important factor to the recruitment of populations and a limiting factor to the development of larvae (Altig and McDiarmid 1999; Loman and Lardner 2006). While biotic variables, such as aquatic vegetation, are important for predator avoidance (Kopp et al 2006; Tavares-Junior et al 2020), abiotic variables relate to water chemistry and specific physiological adaptations and metabolic processes (Hillman 2008). Amaël Borzée et al.: Anuran larvae and aquatic environment in septentrional northeast Asia
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