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How close is microhabitat and diet association in aquatic ecomorphotypes? A test with tadpoles of syntopic species

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Abstract

Tadpoles are important components of food webs at aquatic ecosystems; however, their trophic roles remain understudied compared to fish. Morphology indicates general aspects of tadpole diets (e.g., food size), but a fine association between preferred microhabitats and diet composition remained to be tested. We tested whether syntopic tadpoles differed in microhabitat use and in diet composition according to food availability in different microhabitats. We also tested whether types of microhabitats were consistent in food availability or if food availability would vary among streams. Considering volumes of different food groups ingested, the diets of tadpoles could be partly explained by the microhabitats where they were sampled, but not by streams or even species. Considering number of items of each food group, the diet of tadpoles varied according to stream, microhabitat, and species. Volumes of items of each food group differed among microhabitats, but not among streams. All the studied species could be classified as primary consumers based on the dominance of algae (especially Zygnematophyceae and Bacillariophyceae) in their diets. Patterns of food consumption of tadpoles were complex and responded to variables at a very fine spatial scale, suggesting that they may be sensitive even to small alterations in stream dynamics.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to G. Rodrigues for help during field work, to R. Sawaya and F.S.F. Leite for suggestions in an earlier version of this manuscript, to Dr. Michael Collyer for kindly helping us fit our data and run analyses in RRPP, to the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for a scholarship provided to J. S. Kloh, and to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for a Research Productivity Grant (310162/2017-3) provided to P. C. Eterovick. Collection permits were provided by Sisbio/ICMBio (40270-3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia de Vertebrados – Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, 30535-610, Brazil

    Jéssica Stephanie Kloh & Paula Cabral Eterovick

  2. Departamento de Botânica – Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, 31270-901, Brazil

    Cleber Cunha Figueredo

Authors
  1. Jéssica Stephanie Kloh
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  2. Cleber Cunha Figueredo
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  3. Paula Cabral Eterovick
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Correspondence to Paula Cabral Eterovick.

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Handling editor: Lee B. Kats

Electronic supplementary material

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10750_2018_3818_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Supplementary material 1 (TIFF 2741 kb) Figure S1 Relative composition of tadpole diets and available food items at four microhabitats (nVRnC, nVSnC, VRC, VSnC, as described in Fig. 2) in Stream 2 based on (A) volume of food groups and (B) number of items. Bs = Bokermannohyla saxicola, Ba = B. alvarengai, Bn = B. nanuzae, Om = Ololygon machadoi, Pm = Pithecopus megacephalus.

10750_2018_3818_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Supplementary material 2 (TIFF 2928 kb) Figure S2 Relative composition of tadpole diets and available food items at five microhabitats (as described in Fig. 2) in Stream 3 based on (A) volume of food groups and (B) number of items. Bs = Bokermannohyla saxicola, Ba = B. alvarengai, Bn = B. nanuzae, Om = Ololygon machadoi, Pm = Pithecopus megacephalus.

10750_2018_3818_MOESM3_ESM.tif

Supplementary material 3 (TIFF 1507 kb) Figure S3 Relative composition of tadpole diets and available food items at two microhabitats (nVRC, VSC, as described in Fig. 2) in Stream 4 based on (A) volume of food groups and (B) number of items. Bs = Bokermannohyla saxicola, Ba = B. alvarengai, Bn = B. nanuzae, Om = Ololygon machadoi, Pm = Pithecopus megacephalus.

10750_2018_3818_MOESM4_ESM.tif

Supplementary material 4 (TIFF 2700 kb) Figure S4 Relative composition of tadpole diets and available food items at four microhabitats (nVSnC, nVSC, VSnC, VSC, as described in Fig. 2) in Stream 5 based on (A) volume of food groups and (B) number of items. Bs = Bokermannohyla saxicola, Ba = B. alvarengai, Bn = B. nanuzae, Om = Ololygon machadoi, Pm = Pithecopus megacephalus.

10750_2018_3818_MOESM5_ESM.tif

Supplementary material 5 (TIFF 1678 kb) Figure S5 Relative composition of tadpole diets and available food items at two microhabitats (nVRnC, VRC, as described in Fig. 2) in Stream 6 based on (A) volume of food groups and (B) number of items. Bs = Bokermannohyla saxicola, Ba = B. alvarengai, Bn = B. nanuzae, Om = Ololygon machadoi, Pm = Pithecopus megacephalus.

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Kloh, J.S., Figueredo, C.C. & Eterovick, P.C. How close is microhabitat and diet association in aquatic ecomorphotypes? A test with tadpoles of syntopic species. Hydrobiologia 828, 271–285 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-018-3818-2

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