Seasonal Dissociation in Fossorial Activity between the Llanos' Frog Populations as a Survival Strategy in Arid Subtropical Environments

ROJAS-SOTO, OCTAVIO R.; BALDO, DIEGO; LESCANO, JULIÁN; ENCARNACIÓN-LUÉVANO, ALONDRA; LEYNAUD, GERARDO; NORI, JAVIER

JOURNAL OF HERPETOLOGY

SOC STUDY AMPHIBIANS REPTILES

Año: 2021 vol. 55 p. 442 - 451

0022-1511

mong amphibians, the fossorial habit is an evolutionary strategy to maintain their niches along space and time, avoidinghostile climate conditions. The fossorial frogLepidobatrachus llanensishas evolved in temperate regions, adapted and distributed in aridsubtropical environments, and is divided into two well-defined and isolated populations (northern and southern). In this study, weanalyze if these two populations have adjusted their activity patterns (i.e., feeding and reproduction) as a strategy to retain theirecological niche characteristics along a semiarid latitudinal gradient. We modeled and characterized the ecological niches via Euclideandistance to the ecological niche centroid of the entire species under the false premise that the two populations are equally activethroughout the year (i.e., annual niche). Then, we repeated the exercise considering the niches for the two populations (by estimatingtheir real seasonal niche activity). We also performed comparisons between both populations via a similarity test. Our results suggest thatboth populations are active in similar climatic conditions but in different (dissociated) temporalities, suggesting that seasonal activity infossorial species is a strategy to conserve their climatic niche in two different geographical areas across the year.