Ecological stoichiometry provides a framework for predicting pathways of nutrients through studying the balance of elemental ratios. While most animals maintain a strict ratio of Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N), and Phosphorus (P), larval anurans undergo significant morphological changes throughout development, consequently experiencing fluctuations in nutrient demand. In geographically isolated wetlands, larval anuran diversity is high and they may constitute a significant proportion of biomass. Consequently, larval anurans may be a driver in ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling. Therefore, it is important to identify factors affecting larval anuran body stoichiometry. In this study, we investigated whether there are stoichiometric differences among species and across ontogenetic stages within geographically isolated wetlands in the southeastern Coastal Plain. We hypothesized that stoichiometric differences would arise across life stages due to metamorphic development and between species due to morphological (phenotypic) differences. We analyzed C, N, and P content of 11 anuran species from four different genera and across five distinct developmental stages within four geographically isolated wetlands.
Results/Conclusions
Our preliminary results show that P content varies throughout development across species within the same genus and that patterns of body P content during development vary between genera. For example, we found that Lithobates sphenocephalus larvae contained more P content than other Lithobates larval species at the same developmental stage. We also found that Lithobates larvae maintained a steady increase in P content throughout development, but Hyla gratiosa larvae contained more P in early and late developmental stages than in middle stages. The interspecific variation of larval body stoichiometry that we observed may have implications on wetland ecosystems as differing anuran assemblages might affect processes, such as nutrient cycling and litter decomposition, in different ways.