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Water quality limitations for tadpoles of the Wood Frog in the northern Great Plains, Canada.
- Source :
- Environmental Monitoring & Assessment; Oct2021, Vol. 193 Issue 10, p1-13, 13p
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Some wetlands in the northern Great Plains support hundreds to thousands of late-stage tadpoles providing important sources of recruitment to the Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) population while many other wetlands produce none. Relationships between water quality and late-stage tadpole abundance were determined to identify the water quality parameters associated with tadpole abundance. Water samples were collected, and late-stage tadpole abundances were assessed once each year in late June for 12 years in 26 wetlands. Catch or abundance was the number of tadpoles captured in 30 min with a dip-net. The catch of tadpoles was variable both among wetlands and over the long-term for individual wetlands, and ranged from 0 to several hundred individuals. Wood Frog tadpoles were especially sensitive to sodium and chloride concentrations. At Cl concentrations less than 5 mg/L, occupancy for late-stage tadpoles was 84%, and declined by about 8% for each 5 mg/L increase in Cl to 40.1 mg/L Cl, the maximum concentration associated with the detection of tadpoles. Optimal water quality for late-stage Wood Frog tadpoles included low concentrations of Na (x ¯ = 8.1 mg/L), and Cl (x ¯ = 4.2 mg/L) relative to total dissolved solids and other ions, and high concentrations of phosphorus. In a landscape where ion concentrations in wetlands can range over 3 orders of magnitude, water quality analyses suggest that abundant Wood Frog tadpole populations occur in wetlands dominated by snow-melt runoff with its characteristic low ion concentrations. The present study highlights the importance to amphibian conservation of the water quality environment of tadpole habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- WOOD frog
TADPOLES
WATER quality
WATER conservation
FROG populations
AMPHIBIANS
ANURA
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 01676369
- Volume :
- 193
- Issue :
- 10
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Environmental Monitoring & Assessment
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 153080282
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-021-09385-4