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Testing the Relationship between Human Occupancy in the Landscape and Tadpole Developmental Stress

Amphibian population declines are widespread; the main causal factors are human related and include habitat fragmentation due to agriculture, mining, fires, and urban development. Brazil is the richest country in species of amphibians, and the Brazilian regions with the greatest amphibian diversity...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Eterovick, Paula C., Bar, Luís F. F., Souza, Jorge B., Castro, José F. M., Leite, Felipe S. F., Alford, Ross A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4368558/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25793699
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120172
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author Eterovick, Paula C.
Bar, Luís F. F.
Souza, Jorge B.
Castro, José F. M.
Leite, Felipe S. F.
Alford, Ross A.
author_facet Eterovick, Paula C.
Bar, Luís F. F.
Souza, Jorge B.
Castro, José F. M.
Leite, Felipe S. F.
Alford, Ross A.
author_sort Eterovick, Paula C.
collection PubMed
description Amphibian population declines are widespread; the main causal factors are human related and include habitat fragmentation due to agriculture, mining, fires, and urban development. Brazil is the richest country in species of amphibians, and the Brazilian regions with the greatest amphibian diversity are experiencing relatively high rates of habitat destruction, but there are presently relatively few reports of amphibian declines. It is thus important to develop research methods that will detect deterioration in population health before severe declines occur. We tested the use of measurements of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) taken on amphibian larvae to detect anthropogenic stress. We hypothesized that greater human occupancy in the landscape might result in more stressful conditions for amphibians. We conducted this study at the Espinhaço mountain range in southeastern Brazil, using as a model an endemic species (Bokermannohyla saxicola, Hylidae). We chose two tadpole denticle rows and eye-nostril distance as traits for FA measurement. We measured percent cover of human-altered habitats in the landscape around tadpole sampling points and measured FA levels in sampled tadpoles. We found FA levels to differ among localities but found no relationship between human modification of the landscape and tadpole FA levels. Levels of FA in the traits we examined may not be strongly affected by environmental conditions, or may be affected by local variables that were not captured by our landscape-scale measures. Alternatively, populations may be genetically differentiated, affecting how FA levels respond to stress and obscuring the effects of anthropogenic disturbance.
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spelling pubmed-43685582015-03-27 Testing the Relationship between Human Occupancy in the Landscape and Tadpole Developmental Stress Eterovick, Paula C. Bar, Luís F. F. Souza, Jorge B. Castro, José F. M. Leite, Felipe S. F. Alford, Ross A. PLoS One Research Article Amphibian population declines are widespread; the main causal factors are human related and include habitat fragmentation due to agriculture, mining, fires, and urban development. Brazil is the richest country in species of amphibians, and the Brazilian regions with the greatest amphibian diversity are experiencing relatively high rates of habitat destruction, but there are presently relatively few reports of amphibian declines. It is thus important to develop research methods that will detect deterioration in population health before severe declines occur. We tested the use of measurements of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) taken on amphibian larvae to detect anthropogenic stress. We hypothesized that greater human occupancy in the landscape might result in more stressful conditions for amphibians. We conducted this study at the Espinhaço mountain range in southeastern Brazil, using as a model an endemic species (Bokermannohyla saxicola, Hylidae). We chose two tadpole denticle rows and eye-nostril distance as traits for FA measurement. We measured percent cover of human-altered habitats in the landscape around tadpole sampling points and measured FA levels in sampled tadpoles. We found FA levels to differ among localities but found no relationship between human modification of the landscape and tadpole FA levels. Levels of FA in the traits we examined may not be strongly affected by environmental conditions, or may be affected by local variables that were not captured by our landscape-scale measures. Alternatively, populations may be genetically differentiated, affecting how FA levels respond to stress and obscuring the effects of anthropogenic disturbance. Public Library of Science 2015-03-20 /pmc/articles/PMC4368558/ /pubmed/25793699 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120172 Text en © 2015 Eterovick et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Eterovick, Paula C.
Bar, Luís F. F.
Souza, Jorge B.
Castro, José F. M.
Leite, Felipe S. F.
Alford, Ross A.
Testing the Relationship between Human Occupancy in the Landscape and Tadpole Developmental Stress
title Testing the Relationship between Human Occupancy in the Landscape and Tadpole Developmental Stress
title_full Testing the Relationship between Human Occupancy in the Landscape and Tadpole Developmental Stress
title_fullStr Testing the Relationship between Human Occupancy in the Landscape and Tadpole Developmental Stress
title_full_unstemmed Testing the Relationship between Human Occupancy in the Landscape and Tadpole Developmental Stress
title_short Testing the Relationship between Human Occupancy in the Landscape and Tadpole Developmental Stress
title_sort testing the relationship between human occupancy in the landscape and tadpole developmental stress
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4368558/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25793699
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120172
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