Dataset Information

Allometric escape from acoustic constraints is rare for frog calls.

ABSTRACT: Allometric constraint is a product of natural selection and physical laws, particularly with respect to body size and traits constrained by properties thereof, such as metabolism, longevity, and vocal frequency. Allometric relationships are often conserved across lineages, indicating that physical constraints dictate scaling patterns in deep time, despite substantial genetic and ecological divergence among organisms. In particular, acoustic allometry (sound frequency ~ body size) is conserved across frogs, in defiance of massive variation in both body size and frequency. Here, we ask how many instances of allometric escape have occurred across the frog tree of life using a Bayesian framework that estimates the location, number, and magnitude of shifts in the adaptive landscape of acoustic allometry. Moreover, we test whether ecology in terms of calling site could affect these relationships. We find that calling site has a major influence on acoustic allometry. Despite this, we identify only four major instances of allometric escape, potentially deriving from ecomorphological adaptations to new signal modalities. In these instances of allometric escape, the optima and strength of the scaling relationship are different than expected for most other frog species, representing new adaptive regimes of body size ~ call frequency. Allometric constraints on frog calls are highly conserved and have rarely allowed escape, despite frequent invasions of new adaptive regimes and dramatic ecomorphological divergence. Our results highlight the rare instances in which natural and sexual selection combined can overcome physical constraints on sound production.

SUBMITTER: Tonini JFR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7160179 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Allometric escape from acoustic constraints is rare for frog calls.

Tonini João Filipe Riva JFR Provete Diogo B DB Maciel Natan M NM Morais Alessandro Ribeiro AR Goutte Sandra S Toledo Luís Felipe LF Pyron Robert Alexander RA

Ecology and evolution 20200307 8

Allometric constraint is a product of natural selection and physical laws, particularly with respect to body size and traits constrained by properties thereof, such as metabolism, longevity, and vocal frequency. Allometric relationships are often conserved across lineages, indicating that physical constraints dictate scaling patterns in deep time, despite substantial genetic and ecological divergence among organisms. In particular, acoustic allometry (sound frequency ~ body size) is conserved ac ...[more]

PMID: 32313627

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Project description:Male frog advertisement calls are species-specific vocalizations used to attract females for breeding. However, it is possible for environmental or biological sounds to overlap these calls in both frequency and duration resulting in signal confusion, influencing female decision and/or location abilities. It is therefore important for vocal species competing for the same acoustic space to partition their calls either spatially or temporally (via call alternation or suppression). However, frog species previously isolated from each other may not have developed appropriate adaptive behaviors, resulting in acoustic competition. This study applied rhythm analysis to track changes in calling behavior, namely changes in calling frequency (as in beats per second), of the wallum sedgefrog and the eastern sedgefrog when vocalizing alone versus in the presence of each other to assess potential acoustic competition. Our main findings demonstrated that both species significantly altered their calling behavior when exposed to each other. While we expected the increased calling activity of one species to inhibit the activity of the other to avoid signal confusion, we instead found that both species greatly increased the beat frequency of their calls when calling in the presence of each other. We also found evidence of beat frequency development in the wallum sedgefrog whereby there was always a strong initial increase in call frequency in reaction to the first vocal interruption by the eastern sedgefrog. These results support the hypothesis that the eastern sedgefrog and the wallum sedgefrog are in competition for the acoustic space in habitats where they occur together. This highlights a new threat to the vulnerable wallum sedgefrog species and may serve to inform future management practices. Using rhythm analyses to track changes in acoustic behavior can help inform on important population dynamics such as health, trajectory, and response to management, and therefore be of great benefit to the conservation of vocal species.

Dataset Information

Allometric escape from acoustic constraints is rare for frog calls.

Publications

Allometric escape from acoustic constraints is rare for frog calls.

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