10.5061/DRYAD.F1VHHMGTT
Komaki, Shohei
0000-0002-0486-3239
Iwate Medical University
Sutoh, Yoichi
Iwate Medical University
Kobayashi, Kensuke
Seisen Junior High School
Saito, Shigeru
National Institutes of Natural Sciences
Saito, Claire
National Institutes of Health
Igawa, Takeshi
Hiroshima University
Lau, Quintin
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI
Data from: Hot spring frogs (Buergeria japonica) prefer cooler water to
hot water
Dryad
dataset
2020
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
https://ror.org/02m7axw05
17K15053,18K06365,18K14795,19K06797
2020-08-19T00:00:00Z
2020-08-19T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6637
32909 bytes
4
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
“Hot spring frog” is an informal name used for the Japanese stream tree
frog (Buergeria japonica), which is widely distributed in Taiwan and the
Ryukyu Archipelago in Japan. Some populations of the species are known to
inhabit hot springs. However, water temperature can be extremely high
around the sources of hot springs. Thus, it is questionable whether B.
japonica selectively inhabits such dangerous environments. To address this
question, we conducted a series of observations of water temperature
preferences of a hot spring population of B. japonica in Kuchinoshima
Island in Japan: (1) a field observation of tadpole density in water pools
of different temperatures, (2) a field observation of water temperatures
where adult males appear for breeding, and (3) an indoor observation of
water temperatures selected by adult females for oviposition. As a result,
tadpoles showed a higher density in cooler water. Adult males avoided
water pools hotter than 37 °C, and adult females selected cooler pools for
oviposition. Camera records also showed that adult individuals tend to
appear around cooler pools. Thus, we did not find any support for the
hypothesis that hot spring frogs prefer hot water. Conversely, they
apparently tended to prefer cooler water if it was available. Water
temperatures around the sources of the hot spring exceed thermal
tolerances of the species and could be a strong selective pressure on the
population. Thus, the ability to sense and avoid lethal temperatures may
be a key ecological and physiological characteristic for the species that
inhabit hot springs.