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Relationships between temperature preferences, hopping performance and water loss in northern Australian Hylid frogs

Tracy, Christopher R., Christian, Keith A. and Young, Jeanne E. (2004). Relationships between temperature preferences, hopping performance and water loss in northern Australian Hylid frogs. In: Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, New Orleans, 5-9 January 2004.

Document type: Conference Paper
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Author Tracy, Christopher R.
Christian, Keith A.
Young, Jeanne E.
Title Relationships between temperature preferences, hopping performance and water loss in northern Australian Hylid frogs
Conference Name Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
Conference Location New Orleans
Conference Dates 5-9 January 2004
Conference Publication Title Integrative & Comparative Biology
Publisher Oxford University Press
Publication Year 2004
ISSN 1540-7063   (check CDU catalogue open catalogue search in new window)
HERDC Category E1 - Conference Publication (DEST)
Abstract We measured preferred body temperature in a thermal gradient for twelve species of Hylid frogs (genus Litoria and Cyclorana) from the wet/dry tropics of northern Australia (near Darwin). Species in these two genera are either aquatic, terrestrial or arboreal. Resistance to evaporative water loss (EWL) ranges from nearly zero to relatively high, and appears to correlate closely with habitat type – aquatic frogs have low, arboreal frogs have high and terrestrial frogs have intermediate resistance. Temperature preferences were strongly correlated with EWL; frogs with high resistance to EWL preferred higher temperatures in the gradient and those with low resistance preferred cooler temperatures. We also measured hopping performance at temperatures from 15-37C. All species had peak performance at temperatures higher than preferred in the gradient. We suggest that higher resistance to EWL allows some species to take advantage of increased performance at higher temperatures, without desiccating and thus select higher temperatures than those with low resistance to EWL.
 
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Created: Wed, 28 Nov 2007, 14:16:08 CST