Forests as promoters of terrestrial life-history strategies in East African amphibians
- Müller, Hendrik Institut für Spezielle Zoologie und Evolutionsbiologie mit Phyletischem Museum, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Erbertstrassee 1, 07743 Jena, Germany
- Liedtke, H. Christoph Department of Environmental Science (Biogeography), University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 27, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
- Menegon, Michele Tropical Biodiversity Section, Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali, Via Calepina 14, 38100 Trento, Italy
- Beck, Jan Department of Environmental Science (Biogeography), University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 27, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
- Ballesteros-Mejia, Liliana Department of Environmental Science (Biogeography), University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 27, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
- Nagel, Peter Department of Environmental Science (Biogeography), University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 27, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
- Loader, Simon P. Department of Environmental Science (Biogeography), University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 27, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
- 2013-6-23
Published in:
- Biology Letters. - The Royal Society. - 2013, vol. 9, no. 3, p. 20121146
English
Many amphibian lineages show terrestrialization of their reproductive strategy and breeding is partially or completely independent of water. A number of causal factors have been proposed for the evolution of terrestrialized breeding. While predation has received repeated attention as a potential factor, the influence of other factors such as habitat has never been tested using appropriate data or methods. Using a dataset that comprises 180 amphibian species from various East African habitats, we tested whether species occurring in different habitats show different patterns of terrestrialization in their breeding strategy. We recovered a significant association between terrestrialized breeding strategies and forest habitats. In general, forest seems to act as a facilitator, providing a permissive environment for the evolution of terrestrialized breeding strategies. However, while terrestrial oviposition is strongly correlated with lowland and montane forest habitat, complete terrestrial development is significantly correlated with montane forest only, indicating different selective pressures acting at different steps towards complete terrestrial development.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- bronze
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1098/rsbl.2012.1146
- ISSN 1744-9561
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/92742
Statistics
Document views: 16
File downloads:
- fulltext.pdf: 0