Trophic ecology of tadpoles in floodplain wetlands: combining gut contents, selectivity and stable isotopes to study feeding segregation of syntopic species

LORENZÓN, RODRIGO EZEQUIEL; MANEYRO LANDÓ, RAÚL EDUARDO; ANTONIAZZI, CAROLINA ELISABET; SAIGO, MIGUEL; MARCHESE, MERCEDES ROSA; LÓPEZ, JAVIER ALEJANDRO; DEVERCELLI, MELINA

HYDROBIOLOGIA

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2020 vol. 847 p. 3013 - 3024

0018-8158

Little consensus exists on the role of food partitioning in the organization of tadpole assemblages. We studied trophic ecology of syntopic tadpoles through the analysis of gut contents, selectivity, and stable isotopes to assess the occurrence of food partitioning in tadpole assemblages. Tadpoles (n = 194) were collected in three wetlands and corresponded to four species: Elachistocleis bicolor (Eb), Scinax nasicus (Sn), Physalaemus albonotatus (Pa), and Dendropsophus sp. (D); and belonged to four ecomorphological groups (EMGs): suspension feeders (Eb), nektonic (Sn), benthic (Pa) and macrophagous (D). Sn, and Pa showed low selective diet and a wider trophic spectrum than Eb and D, which mainly consumed one or two food categories. Diet overlap PRIMARY RESEARCH PAPERTrophic ecology of tadpoles in floodplain wetlands:combining gut contents, selectivity, and stable isotopesto study feeding segregation of syntopic speciesCarolina Elisabet Antoniazzi.Javier Alejandro Lo´pez.Rodrigo Ezequie l Lorenzo´n.Miguel Saigo.Melina Devercelli.Rau´l Eduardo Maneyro Lando´.Merced es Rosa Marc heseReceived: 11 December 2019 / Revised: 6 April 2020 / Accepted: 15 May 2020Ó Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020Abstract Little consensus exists on the role of foodpartitioning in the organization of tadpole assem-blages. We studied trophic ecology of syntopictadpoles through the analysis of gut contents, selec-tivity, and stable isotopes to assess the occurrence offood partitioning in tadpole assemblages. Tadpoles(n = 194) were collected in three wetlands andcorresponded to four species: Elachistocleis bicolor(Eb), Scinax nasicus (Sn), Physalaemus albonotatus(Pa), and Dendropsophus sp. (D); and belonged to fourecomorphological groups (EMGs): suspension feeders(Eb), nektonic (Sn), benthic (Pa) and macrophagous(D). Sn, and Pa showed low selective diet and a widertrophic spectrum than Eb and D, which mainlyconsumed one or two food categories. Diet overlap