Calling Males and Tadpole Tales
Year: 2024
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to understand the ecological and evolutionary implications of urbanization across multiple life stages in the túngara frog. Throughout this thesis, I sought to investigate changes in phenotypes and selection pressures in response to urbanization (Figure 1). Specifically, to better understand the relationship of sexual signals and urban selection pressures, I sought to comprehensively characterize the effects of urbanization on sexual signals across many species (Chapter 2). In Chapter 3, I look explicitly at the direct effects of two important sensory pollutants in urban environments, artificial light at night (ALAN) and urban noise pollution, on male breeding behavior. I exposed forest breeding sites, naïve to urban conditions, to ALAN, urban noise pollution, and their combination. I investigated patterns of attraction and repulsion, the timing of breeding behavior, and the calling behavior of males in these various conditions. In Chapter 4, I continued examining the isolated and combined effects of ALAN and urban noise pollution, now quantifying changes in potential selection pressures via changes in receiver behaviors. Specifically, I broadcast synthesized playbacks simulating calling males and quantified the number of approaches from potential mates (female túngara frogs), and predators (fringe-lipped bats) under different sensory conditions. Additionally, I examined if changes in sensory conditions altered the preferences of both females and bats in a field setting. In Chapter 5, I examined the effects of urbanization on the development of tadpoles, utilizing a reciprocal transplant experiment between urban and forest populations to examine both intraand intergenerational effects of urbanization at these early developmental stages. In Chapter 6, I provide an overview and synthesis of my research.
DOI: 10.5463/thesis.758
Author: Andrew Dorsey Cronin
Institutions: Ecologie & Evolution, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Language: English
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4402176353