Infection Causes Trade-Offs between Development and Growth in Larval Amphibians.

AbstractTrade-offs between life history traits are context dependent; they vary depending on environment and life stage. Negative associations between development and growth often characterize larval life stages. Both growth and development consume large parts of the energy budget of young animals. The metabolic rate of animals should reflect differences in growth and developmental rates. Growth and development can also have negative associations with immune function because of their costs. We investigated how intraspecific variation in growth and development affected the metabolism of larval amphibians and whether intraspecific variation in growth, development, and metabolic rate could predict mortality and viral load in larvae infected with ranavirus. We also compared the relationship between growth and development before and after infection with ranavirus. We hypothesized that growth and development would affect metabolism and predicted that each would have a positive correlation with metabolic rate. We further hypothesized that allocation toward growth and development would increase ranavirus susceptibility and therefore predicted that larvae with faster growth, faster development, and higher metabolic rates would be more likely to die from ranavirus and have higher viral loads. Finally, we predicted that growth rate and developmental rate would have a negative association. Intraspecific variation in growth rate and developmental rate did not affect metabolism. Growth rate, developmental rate, and metabolism did not predict mortality from ranavirus or viral load. Larvae infected with ranavirus exhibited a trade-off between developmental rate and growth rate that was absent in uninfected larvae. Our results indicate a cost of ranavirus infection that is potentially due to both the infection-induced anorexia and the cost of infection altering priority rules for resource allocation.

Influence of Physiological Stress on Nutrient Stoichiometry in Larval Amphibians.

Exposure to environmental stressors alters animal phenotypes as well as nutrient metabolism, assimilation, and excretion. While stress-induced shifts in nutrient processes are known to alter organismal carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stoichiometry, there has been little exploration of how environmental factors influence phosphorous (P). A better understanding of how P cycling varies with animal physiological state may provide insight into across-scale processes, because P is essential to animal function and ecological processes such as production and decomposition. We tested the effects of predator stress and exogenous glucocorticoids on C∶N∶P stoichiometry of larval amphibians. Glucocorticoids altered nutrient stoichiometry, apparently by modulating ossification and renal function. This reduced whole-body P and significantly increased N∶P. Additionally, elevated glucocorticoids caused a long-term reduction in P excretion. This reduction may reflect an initial unmeasured loss of P that glucocorticoids induce over acute timescales. In contrast, exposure to predator cues had no effect on larval C∶N∶P stoichiometry, which highlights that different stressors have varied effects on the endocrine stress response. Predation, in particular, is ubiquitous in the environment; thus, larvae responding to predators have conserved mechanisms that likely prevent or minimize physiological disruption. These results demonstrate the differing physiological roles of N and P, distinct nutrient demands associated with amphibian metamorphosis, and the contrasting effects that different environmental factors have on the physiological stress response. Our results also suggest that anthropogenic changes to the environment that induce chronic stress in amphibians could affect the biogeochemistry of nutrient-poor environments where they may act as keystone species.

Using Flow-Ecology Relationships to Evaluate Ecosystem Service Trade-Offs and Complementarities in the Nation's Largest River Swamp.

Large river systems are inextricably linked with social systems; consequently, management decisions must be made within a given ecological, social, and political framework that often defies objective, technical resolution. Understanding flow-ecology relationships in rivers is necessary to assess potential impacts of management decisions, but translating complex flow-ecology relationships into stakeholder-relevant information remains a struggle. The concept of ecosystem services provides a bridge between flow-ecology relationships and stakeholder-relevant data. Flow-ecology relationships were used to explore complementary and trade-off relationships among 12 ecosystem services and related variables in the Atchafalaya River Basin, Louisiana. Results from Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration were reduced to four management-relevant hydrologic variables using principal components analysis. Multiple regression was used to determine flow-ecology relationships and Pearson correlation coefficients, along with regression results, were used to determine complementary and trade-off relationships among ecosystem services and related variables that were induced by flow. Seven ecosystem service variables had significant flow-ecology relationships for at least one hydrologic variable (R (2) = 0.19-0.64). River transportation and blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) landings exhibited a complementary relationship mediated by flow; whereas transportation and crawfish landings, crawfish landings and crappie (Pomoxis spp.) abundance, and blue crab landings and blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) abundance exhibited trade-off relationships. Other trade-off and complementary relationships among ecosystem services and related variables, however, were not related to flow. These results give insight into potential conflicts among stakeholders, can reduce the dimensions of management decisions, and provide initial hypotheses for experimental flow modifications.