Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Frogs – Lifecycles – Juvenile literature“

Diadromous fishes are a frequent but poorly understood component of coastal riverine fish communities in Australia. There are ~33 diadromous fishes found in Australian waters, mainly catadromous and amphidromous species. An extensive review of the literature identified major information gaps about the lifecycles and ecology of many of these species, with information on facultative diadromy, navigation, marine and early life stages being particularly limited. In many cases, this lack of information has led to poor management decisions and consequently many of the Australian diadromous species are under increasing threat from a range of environmental impacts. Much of the required information is difficult to obtain with traditional field surveys and, as a result, new and improved research tools and technologies, including telemetry, otolith chemistry, stable-isotope analysis (SIA) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are increasingly being applied. Key areas for research on Australian diadromous fishes should involve: (1) use of telemetry and otolith chemistry to determine the level of facultative diadromy and variation in diadromous movements across a species range; (2) use of otolith chemistry and SIA to gain a greater understanding of larval and juvenile marine life stages of catadromous and amphidromous species; and (3) use of fMRI or traditional techniques such as electroolfactogram (EOG) to determine the role of olfaction in spawning and migration, and the impact of impoundments and agricultural run-off on these critical life history stages.

Pelusios (Testudines: Pleurodira) is an Afrotropical endemic genus of freshwater turtles that have adapted to a variety of habitats, with savannahs and forests being their two main habitat types. Although considered generally carnivorous, these turtles have rarely been subjected to detailed field surveys for determining their quantitative diet. In this paper, by using both the literature and original data, we analyze the diet of several Pelusios populations: three P. adansonii populations from South Sudan, one P. nanus from Zambia, seven P. castaneus from Nigeria, Benin and Togo, and four P. niger from Nigeria. All species were omnivorous but with a clear preponderance of the prey items being of animal origin (e.g., amphibians, fish, arthropods and annelids). Saturation curves revealed that the diet composition of all the surveyed populations was adequately assessed, and the diversity profiles indicated that all the populations were relatively similar in terms of overall dietary diversity. General Linear Models (GLM) showed a negative effect of vegetation cover on Anura adult consumption by turtles, and showed that the frequencies of Anura tadpoles, fish, reptiles and birds on Pelusios diets increased with the increase in vegetation cover. The GLM model also showed positive effects of individual body size on algae, Bivalvia, reptiles, birds and small mammal consumption by turtles, and underlined that the predation on Arachnida decreased with the increase in turtle body size. In all species, there were no significant intersexual dietary differences, whereas there were substantial ontogenetic dietary changes in three out of four species. Small-sized individuals of P. castaneus, P. niger and P. adansonii tended to feed mainly upon insects, with the adults also taking many fish and adult frogs, and in the case of P. niger, also birds and small mammals. Conversely, in P. nanus, the diet composition did not vary substantially from the juvenile to the adult age. All species appeared substantially generalist in terms of their diet composition, although the effects of season (wet versus dry) were not adequately assessed by our study.