Variation of body temperature of active amphibians along elevation gradients in eastern Nepal Himalaya |
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| Institution: | 1. Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, GPO Box 3323, Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Nepal;2. Department of Earth and Environment, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA;1. Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, 10115 Berlin, Germany;2. Department of Animal Ecology I, Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany;3. Department of Animal Physiology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia;4. Zoological Garden of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia;5. Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg, Germany;1. Institute of Technical Biology and Agriculture Engineering, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China;2. University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China;3. State Key Laboratory of Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;4. Root Biology Center, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China;5. Jiaxing Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jiaxing 314016, China;6. College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China |
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| Abstract: | Understanding the thermal ecology of active amphibians, as well as its relationship with habitat and environmental features, is a central theme in ecology. However, this topic has been poorly studied in eastern Himalaya, which is a global biodiversity hotspot. To bridge this gap, we investigated how the body temperatures of active amphibians varied along an elevation gradient in the Arun and Tamor River catchments in eastern Nepal Himalaya in the present study. Amphibian assemblages were sampled from May to July in both 2014 and 2015 using nocturnal time-constrained visual encounter surveys, and the body temperature of each individual was directly measured using a digital infrared thermometer in the field. A combination of linear regression and hierarchical partitioning analyses was used to determine the effects of elevation and environmental variables on the body temperatures of active amphibians. In total, the body temperatures of 599 amphibian individuals belonging to 28 species from six families were recorded. Our results indicated that amphibian body temperature exhibited monotonically declining trends with increasing elevations in eastern Nepal Himalaya. Interestingly, this tread was much more pronounced in subtropical (lowland) areas than in warm and cool temperate regions. Inter- and intraspecies variations in body temperature were large, which can be attributed to distinct habitat utilization among species and the change in vegetation cover in different bioclimatic zones. Among all environmental variables, substrate temperature and water temperature were the best predictors of the amphibian body temperature. Overall, this study revealed amphibian body temperature patterns along an elevation gradient in eastern Nepal Himalaya, which were principally driven by temperature-related environmental factors. We believe our results can provide important information on amphibian physiological traits, which may help ecologists predict their responses to future climate change and formulate protection strategies. |
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| Keywords: | Eastern Nepal Himalaya Amphibians Thermal ecology Spatial patterns |
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