Ecological Assembly of Leaf-Litter Anuran Communities Across a Neotropical Land-Bridge

143 Pages·2017·10.96 MB·English

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LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School
2016
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Sandra Patricia Galeano Munoz
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College
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Galeano Munoz, Sandra Patricia, "Ecological Assembly of Leaf-Litter Anuran Communities Across a
Neotropical Land-Bridge Archipelago" (2016). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 770.
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ECOLOGICAL ASSEMBLY OF LEAF-LITTER ANURAN COMMUNITIES ACROSS A
NEOTROPICAL LAND-BRIDGE ARCHIPELAGO

A Dissertation

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the
Louisiana State University and
Agricultural and Mechanical College
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

in

The Department of Biological Sciences

by
Sandra Patricia Galeano Munoz
B.A., Universidad de Antioquia, 2003
M.S., Southern Illinois University, 2009
August 2016
To my beloved family

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Kyle Harms, for his
mentorship during my time as a graduate student. I am really thankful to him for giving me the
opportunity to join his lab and for sharing his passion for science with me. His continuous
support encouraged me to overpass multiple difficult times during this process, and his
positivism and commitment to maintain a well-balanced life inspired me day after day. I am also
thankful to other members of my committee – Dr. Bret Elderd, Dr. Jim Cronin, and Dr. Jeff
Davis – for their guidance and assistance at all levels of this research project. Special thanks also
go to Dr. Richard Stevens, who was part of my committee during my first years at LSU. I am
also thankful to Dr. Vivian Paez, Dr. Karen Warkentin, and Dr. Karen Lips for supporting my
initial application to the doctoral program at LSU and for their informal mentoring along my
career.
I thank my current lab mates - Metha Klock, Katherine Hovanes, Dr. Lorelei Patrick – for
their intellectual and emotional support, and for providing valuable comments on drafts and
presentations on numerous occasions. I also thank my past lab mates – Dr. Jonathan Myers,
Natalia Aristizabal, Dr. Adriana Bravo, Dr. Erica Tsai - for their encouragement and intellectual
conversations during the first years of my PhD. Dr. David Blouin, Dr. Kevin McCarter, Dr.
Sebastian Tello, Dr. Justin Touchon, Dr. Michael Caldwell, Dr. Miguel Acevedo, Cesar
Jaramillo, Mireya Dimas, Xuan Chen and Zach Goodnow were always open to answer my
questions and helped me at different levels of this research. I am also grateful to the “Ecology
Teaching Team” – Dr. Barry Aronhime, Warwick Allen, Andrew Flick, Matt Faldyn, Scott
Kosiba, Katherine Hovanes, Carlos Prada, Ganesh Bhattarai – for their support and friendship
during the last three years of my experience as a teaching assistant at LSU. Special thanks to

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members of the staff of the Department of Biological Sciences - Chimene Williams, Prissy
Milligan, Jill Atwood, and many others - for their help with all the administrative processes.
Thanks to my field assistants – Davys Gonzales, Christian Harris, and Marcos Alvarez for their
hard work and friendship. I could not have asked for better company in the field.
This project would not have been possible without the logistic and intellectual support
from Dr. Corinne Richards-Zawacki. Her help was invaluable to complete my fieldwork in
Panama, and her support helped me continue to grow as a scientist during my two years living in
New Orleans. Special thanks also go to the present and former members of the Richards-
Zawacki lab – Dr. Matt Dugas, Dr. Justin Yeager, Layla Freeborn, Veronica Saenz, Yusan Yang,
Matt Roback and Julia Sonn – for their intellectual support and company. Dr. Corinne Richards-
Zawacki and Dr. Justin Yeager provided some of the pictures used in figures of this dissertation.
I would like to thank Dr. Liz Derryberry for receiving me at Tulane University and facilitating
things for me so I could advance on my dissertation during my time there. I am also thankful to
Veronica Saenz, Bruno Ghersi, Demetra Kandalepas, Brock Gueary, Sara Lipshutz, Maggie
MacPherson and many others at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane
University for their friendship and for making me feel like I was home.
For their financial assistance, I would like to thank the Association for University
Women (AAUW), LSU Alumni Association, LSU Biology Grad Student Organization
(Biograds), the Louisiana Environmental Education Coalition, and Sigma Xi (the LSU Chapter).
Thanks to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) personnel – Zurenayka Alain,
Orelis Arosemena, Marcela Paz, Raineldo Urriola, for logistical support and help in obtaining
my research permits to work in Panama. Special thanks to the personnel from the Bocas del Toro
Research Station – Gabriel Jacome, Plinio Gondola, Gilberto Murray, Arcadio Castillo, and

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Urania Gonzalez- for providing logistical support and making things easier for me while I
conducted my fieldwork.
I also thank my friends at the Bocas del Toro Biological Station – Viktoria Frühling,
Verania Gonzales, Remy Okazaki, Cindy Gonzales, Zach Rosen, and Ivan Botia – for their good
vibe, which made each one of my days in Panama even happier. I am especially grateful for the
emotional support and encouragement from my LSU friends: Sebastian Tello, Hector Urbina,
Carlos Prada, Natalie Levy, Gustavo Bravo, Natalia Aristizabal, Meche Gavilanez, Yamid
Sanabria, Fernando Alda, Catalina Restrepo, Carolina Avellaneda, Adriana Dantin, Cesar
Sanchez, Eve McCulloch, Maria Sagot, Catalina Posada, Stella Polanco, Ana Lucia Amaya,
Santiago Grimaldo, Xiomara Zapata, Angelica Hernandez, and Miguel Acevedo. Thank you for
making my time at LSU more enjoyable. Special thanks go to the people at the Audubon
Volleyball Society. I really enjoyed sharing with them my Saturday mornings and getting
recharged with new energy every week.
I am immensely thankful to my friend and lab mate Dr. Metha Klock. Her intellectual
support, friendship, and company during these past years were invaluable. I am really glad I had
the opportunity to share this entire path with her. I also want to thank my best friends - Diego
Arcila, Juana Correa, and Jenny Urbina - for always being there despite the distance.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents and brother – Doris, Alfonso, and Jota
– for their love, continuous encouragement, and unconditional support; to my loving husband,
Andres, for being my rock, my balance, and for making each one of my days more and more
colorful; and to God for giving me the strength to pursue this dream despite the difficult times I
went trough. Undoubtedly, I would not have made it to where I am today without them.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii

LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... viii

LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... ix

ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................x

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1
1.1. COMMUNITY ASSEMBLY AND TRAIT VARIATION: AN OVERVIEW ...........1
1.2. STUDY GROUP ...........................................................................................................4
1.3. OVERVIEW OF CHAPTERS ......................................................................................6

CHAPTER 2. INSULAR SHIFTS IN BODY SIZE OF LEAF-LITTER FROGS IN A
TROPICAL ARCHIPELAGO .........................................................................................................8
2.1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................8
2.2. METHODS .................................................................................................................11
2.3. RESULTS ...................................................................................................................17
2.4. DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................22

CHAPTER 3. COLORATION IN THE POLYMORPHIC FROG Oophaga pumilio
ASSOCIATES WITH LEVEL OF AGGRESSIVENESS IN INTRASPECIFIC AND
INTERSPECIFIC BEHAVIORAL INTERACTIONS..................................................................30
3.1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................30
3.2. METHODS .................................................................................................................35
3.3. RESULTS ...................................................................................................................45
3.4. DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................51

CHAPTER 4. ASSEMBLY PATTERNS OF LEAF-LITTER ANURANS ON
NEOTROPICAL LAND-BRIDGE ISLANDS: SPECIES CO-OCCURRENCE AND THE
ROLE OF MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS ....................................................................................60
4.1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................60
4.2. METHODS .................................................................................................................65
4.3. RESULTS ...................................................................................................................74
4.4. DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................82

CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................91

LITERATURE CITED ..................................................................................................................95

APPENDIX A. SUPPORTING INFORMATION FOR CHAPTER 2 .......................................115

APPENDIX B. SUPPORTING INFORMATION FOR CHAPTER 3 .......................................117

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APPENDIX C. SUPPORTING INFORMATION FOR CHAPTER 4 .......................................124

APPENDIX D. PERMISSION TO REPRINT PUBLISHED CHAPTER ..................................130

VITA ............................................................................................................................................131

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1. List of 15 forests surveyed for leaf-litter anurans in the Bocas del Toro
Archipelago and adjacent mainland sites ...........................................................................13
Table 2.2. p values of Tukey-Kramer post hoc tests for comparisons of body size of two
leaf-litter frogs between islands and mainland sites in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago ..18
Table 2.3. Simple and robust regression analyses assessing relationships between body size
of two leaf-litter frogs and island area, island age, and distance to the mainland .............20
Table 3.1. Islands of the Bocas del Toro Archipelago in which frogs of Oophaga pumilio,
Phyllobates lugubris and Andinobates claudiae were collected ........................................37
Table 3.2. Description of agonistic behaviors displayed by frogs of Oophaga pumilio,
Phyllobates lugubris and Andinobates claudiae ................................................................42
Table 3.3. p values of Tukey’s post hoc test and Cohen’s d effect sizes for comparisons of
the aggression score, index of aggression, and latency of green and red O. pumilio
residents subjected to four experimental treatments ..........................................................46
Table 4.1. List of sites and forests surveyed for leaf-litter anurans in the Bocas del Toro
Archipelago and adjacent mainland sites ...........................................................................67
Table 4.2. Species co-occurrence analyses at the local scale of leaf-litter anuran communities
in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago ....................................................................................76
Table 4.3. Size overlap analyses at the local scale of leaf-litter anuran communities in the
Bocas del Toro Archipelago ..............................................................................................78
Table 4.4. Species co-occurrence analyses at the regional scale of leaf-litter anuran
communities in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago ...............................................................80

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1. Locations of 15 forests studied in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama .............12
Figure 2.2. Variation in body size of a) O. pumilio and b) C. polyptychus represented as
snout-vent length in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago and adjacent mainland ..................19
Figure 2.3. Body size represented as snout-vent length of O. pumilio in northern (in white)
and southern (in gray) localities within six islands of the Bocas del Toro Archipelago ...20
Figure 2.4. Relationships among mean body size of O. pumilio (represented as snout-vent
length) and distance to the mainland (a); island area (b); and island age (c) of islands
and mainland sites in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago ......................................................21
Figure 2.5. Relationships among mean population density of O. pumilio and distance to the
mainland (a); island area (b); and island age (c) of islands and mainland sites in the
Bocas del Toro Archipelago ..............................................................................................22
Figure 3.1. Treatments included in the resident-intruder experiment ............................................40
Figure 3.2. Aggression levels for green (in white) and red (in gray) Oophaga pumilio
residents paired with a conspecific (intraspecific), Phyllobates lugubris (interspecific
P. lugubris), Andinobates claudiae (interspecific A. claudiae), and a surrogate
(surrogate) ..........................................................................................................................47
Figure 3.3. Contest scores as measures of contest outcome for green (in white) and red
(in gray) O. pumilio residents paired with a conspecific (intraspecific), Phyllobates
lugubris (interspecific P. lugubris), Andinobates claudiae (Interspecific A. claudiae),
and a surrogate (surrogate) .................................................................................................50
Figure 4.1. Islands and mainland sites studied in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama ........66
Figure 4.2. Frequency distribution of C-score values generated after 5000 randomizations
for the local species composition matrix of diurnal leaf-litter anurans in Rana Azul
(mainland) adjacent to the Bocas del Toro Archipelago ...................................................77
Figure 4.3. Frequency distribution of C-score values generated after 5000 randomizations
for the regional species composition sub-matrix of islands where highly conspicuous
morphs of O. pumilio exclusively occur in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago ....................81

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