Newt life after fish introduction: extirpation of paedomorphosis in a mountain fish lake and newt use of satellite pools

Current Zoology
Mathieu DenoëlNicola Zambelli

Abstract

Fish introduction is one of the main causes of amphibian decline worldwide. It affects particularly rare aquatic phenotypes such as paedomorphs, which retain gills during the adult stage. In this context, we determined whether small wetlands, such as pools surrounding fished and fishless lakes, could sustain paedomorphic and metamorphic newts. To this end, we surveyed lakes known historically to sustain Alpine newtsIchthyosaura alpestrisas well as 35 nearby pools. On the basis of the published records, the only known population exhibiting paedomorphosis in the Swiss Alps was found to be extirpated by salmonid introductions. However, the metamorphs persisted in peripheral pools, paedomorphosis was discovered at a new locality, and overwintering larvae were still present in one of the lakes. These results show the importance of conserving varied aquatic habitats such as pools in mountainous environments where the main resources can become unsuitable for amphibians because of fish introductions. Pools may also function as reservoirs in maintaining newt populations until programs to remove fish from lakes can be carried out. It is not known if paedomorphs could reappear after fish removal. However, the combined resilience of amphib...Continue Reading

References

May 12, 2004·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Vance T Vredenburg
Jul 29, 2011·Oecologia·H H WhitemanJ J Gutrich
Jan 26, 2013·Current Topics in Developmental Biology·Carlena K Johnson, S Randal Voss
May 10, 2013·PloS One·Mathieu DenoëlGentile Francesco Ficetola
Nov 5, 2013·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Mathieu Denoël, Gentile F Ficetola
Jul 1, 2003·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Nadège PerretPierre Joly

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Software Mentioned

nlme
ArcGis
spdep
gstat
R
mass

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Autoimmune Lymphoproliferative Syndrome

Autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome (ALPS) is a rare genetic disorder of abnormal lymphocyte survival caused by defective Fas mediated apoptosis. Discover the latest research on ALPS here.