Project Details
Projekt
Re-establishing communities – trait based recovery of amphibian pioneers
Subject Area
Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 444827997
In phase 1 we investigated the reassembly of amphibian-prey networks along a forest regeneration gradient. We compared anuran assemblages and their prey to leaf-litter arthropod abundance and composition, as well as frogs’ skin alkaloids. We hypothesized that persistence and recovery of networks would differ between anurans with generalized and those with more specialized diets. We assumed faster recovery of generalists, compared to those frogs with a specialized diet, i.e. species that depend on particular prey in order to sequester alkaloids. However, we had to reject our hypothesis that dietary specialisation plays a role in the resilience and/or recovery capability of leaf-litter frogs. Our data suggest the importance of abiotic factors and resources, and species-specific characteristics being the key determinants for species to resist forest alteration or their ability to reach and establish on recovering sites. Thus, our goal in phase 2 is to understand how abiotic (microclimatic conditions, breeding sites, water parameters), and biotic effects (resources, predation, competition), act as filters on the persistence, recovery rate, recovery sequence and species interactions of species with different traits (morphology, physiology, reproductive biology). In particular we want to know what enables or limits frogs to discover, reach, and establish in recovering sites. We will address our questions by combining ecological and physiological methods, and comparing morphological, physiological and life-history traits of early pioneers with forest ‘climax’ populations and species. We will offer different breeding sites, addressing functionally different frog species, across the Reassembly gradient. On the plots we will monitor the appearance and establishment of anurans, their potential aquatic predators and competitors, as well as the abiotic factors at these sites. A novel aspect will be our focus to link reestablishment of amphibians to tree species through the leaf litter, respective epiphylls. Although from temperate anurans strong influences are known, this has not yet been investigated in any tropical ecosystem. Our comparison on the impact of pioneer and climax tree species, through microclimate and leaf litter traits (including epiphyll communities), on tadpole development, will provide us with novel insights to constraints and barriers in amphibian recovery of tropical forest ecosystems. With physiological experiments, testing for temperature preferences, frogs’ performance and energy budgeting, at temperatures which mirror the gradient of the chronosequence, we will determine the preferences and limits of different frog species to cross through the surrounding matrix and to reach and settle in different forest recovery stages. Finally, we will combine all our data to model where our focal species theoretically could occur, or should be absent in the landscape. We will evaluate these predictions with the monitoring data from SP2.
DFG Programme
Research Units
International Connection
Ecuador
Cooperation Partners
Professorin Mónica Guerra, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Andrés Ricardo Merino-Viteri
