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Latitudinal and temperature-dependent variation in embryonic development and growth in Rana temporaria

  • Population Ecology
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Abstract

Variation in seasonal time constraints and temperature along latitudinal gradients are expected to select for life history trait differentiation, but information about the relative importance of these factors in shaping patterns of divergence in embryonic traits remains sparse. We studied embryonic survival, growth and development rates in the common frog (Rana temporaria) along a 1,400-km latitudinal gradient across Sweden by raising embryos from four populations in the laboratory at seven temperatures (9°C, 12°C, 15°C, 18°C, 21°C, 24°C, 27°C). We found significant differences in mean values of all traits between the populations and temperature treatments, but this variation was not latitudinally ordered. In general, embryonic survival decreased at the two highest temperatures in all populations, but less so in the southernmost as compared to the other populations. The northernmost population developed slowest at the lowest temperature, while the two mid-latitude populations were slowest at the other temperatures. Hatchling size increased with increasing temperature especially in the two northern populations, whereas the two southern populations showed peak hatchling size at 15°C. Analyses of within-population genetic variation with a half-sib design revealed that there was significant additive genetic variation in all traits, and egg size-related maternal effects were important in the case of hatchling size. Overall, our results indicate that unlike larval growth and development, variation in embryonic development and growth in R. temporaria cannot be explained in terms of a latitudinal gradient in season length. While adaptation to a latitudinal variation in temperature might have contributed to the observed differentiation in embryonic performance, the effects of other, perhaps more local environmental factors, seem to have overridden them in importance.

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Acknowledgements

We thank P. Jaxgård, S. Karttunen, G. Løe, M. Pahkala, C. Reim, K. Räsänen, F. Söderman and H. Virtanen for assistance in the laboratory, and T. Halliday and an anonymous reviewer for comments on the manuscript. Special thanks to N. E. Persson for solving many technical problems in laboratory. The experiments were performed with the permission (C21/98) of the Ethical Committee of Uppsala University. Our research was supported by grants from the Swedish Natural Science Research Council (J. M.), the European Union (A. L.) and the Academy of Finland (A. L., J. M.).

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  1. Juha Merilä

    Present address: Ecological Genetics Research Unit, Department of Ecology and Systematics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 65, 00014, Finland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Population Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18d, 752 36, Uppsala, Sweden

    Ane T. Laugen, Anssi Laurila & Juha Merilä

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  1. Ane T. Laugen
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  2. Anssi Laurila
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Correspondence to Anssi Laurila.

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Laugen, A.T., Laurila, A. & Merilä, J. Latitudinal and temperature-dependent variation in embryonic development and growth in Rana temporaria . Oecologia 135, 548–554 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-003-1229-0

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