Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Rain, prey and predators: climatically driven shifts in frog abundance modify reproductive allometry in a tropical snake

  • Ecosystem Ecology
  • Published:
Oecologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To predict the impacts of climate change on animal populations, we need long-term data sets on the effects of annual climatic variation on the demographic traits (growth, survival, reproductive output) that determine population viability. One frequent complication is that fecundity also depends upon maternal body size, a trait that often spans a wide range within a single population. During an eight-year field study, we measured annual variation in weather conditions, frog abundance and snake reproduction on a floodplain in the Australian wet-dry tropics. Frog numbers varied considerably from year to year, and were highest in years with hotter wetter conditions during the monsoonal season (“wet season”). Mean maternal body sizes, egg sizes and post-partum maternal body conditions of frog-eating snakes (keelback, Tropidonophis mairii, Colubridae) showed no significant annual variation over this period, but mean clutch sizes were higher in years with higher prey abundance. Larger females were more sensitive to frog abundance in this respect than were smaller conspecifics, so that the rate at which fecundity increased with body size varied among years, and was highest when prey availability was greatest. Thus, the link between female body size and reproductive output varied among years, with climatic factors modifying the relative reproductive rates of larger (older) versus smaller (younger) animals within the keelback population.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1a–b
Fig. 2a–b

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andrews RM (1991) Population stability of a tropical lizard. Ecology 72:1204–1217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andrews RM, Wright SJ (1994) Long-term population fluctuations of a tropical lizard: a test of causality. In: Vitt LJ, Pianka ER (eds) Lizard ecology: historical and experimental perspectives. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, pp 267–285

  • Bolton BL, Newsome AE, Merchant J (1982) Reproduction in the agile wallaby, Macropus agilis (Gould), in the tropical lowlands of the Northern Territory: opportunism in a seasonal environment. Aust J Ecol 7:261–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown GP, Shine R (2002) Reproductive ecology of a tropical natricine snake, Tropidonophis mairii (Colubridae). J Zool Lond 258:63–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown GP, Shine R (2006) Why do most tropical animals reproduce seasonally? Testing alternative hypotheses on the snake Tropidonophis mairii (Colubridae). Ecology 87:133–143

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brown GP, Shine R (2007) Repeatability and heritability of reproductive traits in free-ranging snakes. J Evol Biol 20:588–596

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brown GP, Shine R, Madsen T (2001) Responses of three sympatric snake species to tropical seasonality in northern Australia. J Trop Ecol 18:549–558

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bull JJ, Shine R (1979) Iteroparous animals that skip opportunities for reproduction. Am Nat 114:296–316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cezilly F, Boy V, Green RE, Hirons GMJ, Johnson AR (1995) Interannual variation in Greater Flamingo breeding success in relation to water levels. Ecology 76:20–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cogger HG (2000) Reptiles and amphibians of Australia, 6th edn. Reed New Holland, Sydney

    Google Scholar 

  • Du W, Ji X, Shine R (2005) Does body-volume constrain reproductive output in lizards? Biol Lett 1:98–100

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Duellman WE, Trueb L (1986) Biology of amphibians. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitch HS (1970) Reproductive cycles in lizards and snakes. Univ Kansas Mus Nat Hist Misc Publ 52:1–247

    Google Scholar 

  • Forsman A (1996) Body size and net energy gain in gape-limited predators: a model. J Herpetol 30:307–319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forsman A (1997) Growth and survival of Vipera berus in a variable environment. Symp Zool Soc Lond 70:143–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Forsman A, Lindell L (1997) Responses of a predator to variation in prey abundance: survival and emigration of adders in relation to vole density. Can J Zool 75:1099–1108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frith HJ, Davies SJJF (1961) Ecology of the magpie goose, Anseranas semipalmata Latham (Anatidae). Wildl Res 6:91–141

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbons JW, Greene JL (1990) Reproduction in the slider and other species of turtles. In: Gibbons JW (ed) Life history and ecology of the slider turtle. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp 124–134

  • Kennett R (1999) Reproduction of two species of freshwater turtle, Chelodina rugosa and Elseya dentata, from the wet-dry tropics of northern Australia. J Zool Lond 247:457–473

    Google Scholar 

  • Luiselli L, Capula M, Shine R (1997) Food habits, growth rates, and reproductive biology of grass snakes, Natrix natrix (Colubridae) in the Italian Alps. J Zool Lond 241:371–380

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madsen T, Shine R (1999a) The adjustment of reproductive threshold to prey abundance in a capital breeder. J Anim Ecol 68:571–580

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madsen T, Shine R (1999b) Rainfall and rats: climatically-driven dynamics of a tropical rodent population. Aust J Ecol 24:80–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madsen T, Shine R (2000) Rain, fish and snakes: climatically driven population dynamics of Arafura filesnakes in tropical Australia. Oecologia 124:208–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madsen T, Ujvari B, Shine R, Olsson M, Loman J (2006) Rain, rats and pythons: climate-driven population dynamics of predators and prey in tropical Australia. Austral Ecol 31:30–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malnate EV, Underwood G (1988) Australasian natricine snakes of the genus Tropidonophis. Proc Acad Nat Sci Philadelphia 140:59–201

    Google Scholar 

  • Morton SR, Brennan KG (1991) Birds. In: Haynes CD, Ridpath MG, Williams MAJ (eds) Monsoonal Australia: landscape, ecology and man in the northern lowlands. AA Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 133–149

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Shea M (1996) A guide to the snakes of Papua New Guinea. Independent Publishing, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

  • Owen-Smith N (1990) Demography of a large herbivore, the Greater Kudu Tragelaphus strepsiceros, in relation to rainfall. J Anim Ecol 59:893–913

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Polis GA, Hurd SD, Jackson CT, Pinero FS (1997) El Niño effects on the dynamics and control of an island ecosystem in the Gulf of California. Ecology 78:1884–1897

    Google Scholar 

  • Pough FH (1980) The advantages of ectothermy for tetrapods. Am Nat 115:92–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Redhead TD (1979) On the demography of Rattus sordidus colletti in monsoonal Australia. Aust J Ecol 4:115–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ridpath MG (1985) Ecology in the wet-dry tropics: how different? Proc Ecol Soc Aust 13:3–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Seigel RA, Fitch HS (1985) Annual variation in reproduction in snakes in a fluctuating environment. J Anim Ecol 54:497–505

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shine R (1991) Strangers in a strange land: ecology of the Australian colubrid snakes. Copeia 1991:120–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shine R (1992) Relative clutch mass and body shape in lizards and snakes: is reproductive investment constrained or optimized? Evolution 46:828–833

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shine R, Brown GP (2007) Adapting to the unpredictable: reproductive biology of vertebrates in the Australian wet-dry tropics. Phil Trans Roy Soc (in press)

  • Shine R, Greer AE (1991) Why are clutch sizes more variable in some species than in others? Evolution 45:1696–1706

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shine R, Madsen T (1997) Prey abundance and predator reproduction: rats and pythons on a tropical Australian floodplain. Ecology 78:1078–1086

    Google Scholar 

  • Shine R, Harlow PS, Keogh JS, Boeadi (1998) The influence of sex and body size on food habits of a giant tropical snake, Python reticulatus. Funct Ecol 12:248–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singer FJ, Harting A, Symonds KK, Coughenour MB (1997) Density dependence, compensation, and environmental effects on calf mortality in Yellowstone National Park. J Wildl Manage 61:12–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith GR, Ballinger RE, Rose BR (1995) Reproduction in Sceloporus virgatus from the Chiricahua Mountains of southeast Arizona with emphasis on annual variation. Herpetologica 51:342–349

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart M (1995) Climate driven population fluctuation in rain forest frogs. J Herpetol 29:437–446

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor JA, Tulloch D (1985) Rainfall in the wet-dry tropics: extreme events at Darwin and similarities between years during the period 1870–1983. Aust J Ecol 10:281–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tyler MJ (1989) Australian frogs. Viking O’Neill, Ringwood, VIC, Australia

  • Vitt LJ, Congdon JD (1978) Body shape, reproductive effort, and relative clutch mass in lizards: resolution of a paradox. Am Nat 112:595–608

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webb GJW, Buckworth R, Manolis SC (1983) Crocodylus johnstoni in the McKinlay River area, NT. III. Growth, movement and the population age structure. Aust Wildl Res 10:383–401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wikelski M, Romero LM (2003) Body size, performance and fitness in Galapagos marine iguanas. Integr Comp Biol 43:376–386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wikelski M, Thom C (2000) Marine iguanas shrink to survive El Niño. Nature 403:37–38

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Williams CK, Newsome AE (1991) Adaptation in native mammals. In: Haynes CD, Ridpath MG, Williams MAJ (eds) Monsoonal Australia: landscape, ecology and man in the northern lowlands. AA Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 151–167

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank Cathy Shilton, Ben Phillips and the other members of TeamBufo for advice and encouragement, Melanie Elphick for help with manuscript preparation, the managers and staff of Beatrice Hill Farm for logistical assistance, and the Australian Research Council for funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences A08, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Gregory P. Brown & Richard Shine

Authors
  1. Gregory P. Brown
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Richard Shine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard Shine.

Additional information

Communicated by Anssi Laurila.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Brown, G.P., Shine, R. Rain, prey and predators: climatically driven shifts in frog abundance modify reproductive allometry in a tropical snake. Oecologia 154, 361–368 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-007-0842-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-007-0842-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation