Short-term Exposure of Environmentally Relevant Concentrations of Nitrate and its Effect on Olfactory Male Attractiveness and Repellent Cues in Pacific Newts
Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Amphibian decline has quickly become a complex global issue, warranting the \nattention of behavioral ecologists and conservation biologists alike. A ubiquitous \nnatural compound, nitrate, has greatly increased in environmental concentrations \ndue to anthropogenic sources. Nitrate has been shown to affect amphibian larval \ndevelopment as well as courtship behavior in adults. Species recognition often \nprecedes courtship behavior and thus plays a critical role in the conservation of \nreproductive isolation between closely related sympatric species. Here, we \ninvestigate species recognition and mate preference by female rough-skinned \nnewts, Taricha granulosa via chemical cues alone in the presence of aged water \nand water treated with nitrate. We found that females preferred the odor source \nof conspecific males when given the option of heterospecific male species. \nHowever, in the presence of nitrate, pond breeding females no longer preferred \nconspecific males, while creek breeding females maintained their preference for \nconspecifics. Pond breeding females also avoided heterospecific cues while this \ntrend was not apparent in creek breeding females. Our results suggest that \nfemale rough-skinned newts respond to both attractant and repellent.chemical \ncues and that a repellent cue may act to prevent heterospecific mate pairings. \nOur findings also support geographic variation in mate preference response in \nthe presence of nitrate.
Author: Kellianne C. Minarik
Language: English
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2210722324