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Vol. 64, 2025
Trait-environment relationship
in Tadpole Communities of the Southern Atlantic Forest
Roseli
Coelho dos Santos1,* , Diego Anderson Dalmolin2,†, Diego Brum3, Renata Krentz Farina4, Elaine Maria Lucas5, and Alexandro Marques
Tozetti1
doi:-
1Laboratório
de Ecologia de Vertebrados Terrestres – Universidade do Vale do Rio dos
Sinos - Av. Unisinos, 950, Cristo Rei, São Leopoldo, RS, CEP:
93.022-000, Brazil. *Correspondence: E-mail: roselicbio@gmail.com
(Santos)
E-mail: alexandro.tozetti@gmail.com (Tozetti)
2(in memoriam) Laboratório de Metacomunidades,
Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul –
UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil
3Vizlab / X-Reality and GeoInformatics Lab –
Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos – Unisinos, 950, Cristo Rei, São
Leopoldo, RS, CEP: 93.022-000, Brazil. E-mail: diego-portao@hotmail.com
(Brum)
4Laboratório de Herpetologia, Instituto de
Biociências, Universidade Federal de do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto
Alegre, RS, 90010-150, Brazil. E-mail: renatakfarina@gmail.com (Farina)
5Departamento de Zootecnia e Ciências Biológicas,
Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Palmeira das Missões, RS, CEP:
98.300-000, Brazil. E-mail: elaine.lucasg@gmail.com (Lucas)
†The author passed
away on 03 Jun. 2023.
(Received 12 March 2023 / Accepted 13 March 2025 / Published -- 2025)
Communicated by Benny K.K. Chan
The diversity of functional traits
can be evaluated by analyzing an individual’s morphological,
physiological, and behavioral attributes, revealing the effect of
environmental filters on communities. However, the role of different
spatial scales in environmental evaluation over ecological attributes
is complex and poorly studied in tadpole communities. Here, we
investigated the association between micro (local) and macro
(landscape) variables and the morphological traits of tadpoles in the
southern region of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We sampled 28
waterbodies (ponds and streams) and evaluated 2861 individuals of 22
anuran species. Our sampling reached a wide geographic area across
three states in southern Brazil. We measured the physicochemical
characteristics of the water, as well as microhabitat and landscape
environmental descriptors. Eighteen morphological traits were evaluated
in individuals for each tadpole species. We performed RLQ and
fourth-corner analyses to determine the patterns of trait-environment
relationships and the local and landscape variables that influence the
morphological characteristics of tadpoles. We found that morphological
traits are mainly associated with physicochemical and microhabitat
attributes and are distinct between ponds and streams. In ponds,
tadpole traits exhibited greater association with water depth, pH, and
the presence of vegetation, whereas in streams they were driven by
several water physicochemical components and microhabitat composition.
Our results indicate that local components of habitat (water
characteristics and microhabitat) have a greater influence over
functional traits of tadpoles than landscape in both ponds and streams.
Furthermore, we also found possible adjustments in the functional
traits of tadpoles related to the physicochemical characteristics of
the water and microhabitat.
Keywords:
Anurans,
Freshwater, Functional diversity, Habitat, Morphology
Citation: dos Santos RC, Dalmolin DA, Brum
D, Farina RK, Lucas EM, Tozetti AM. 2025. Trait-environment
relationship in tadpole communities of the southern Atlantic Forest.
Zool Stud 64:16.
Supplementary
materials: Fig. S1丨Table S1丨Table S2丨Table S3丨Table S4丨Table
S5丨Table S6丨Table S7丨Table S8丨Table S9丨Table S10丨Table S11
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