Effect of developmental stage and body size on oxygen consumption of anuran larvae: A reappraisal

✍ Scribed by Feder, Martin E.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 696 KB
• Volume: 220
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-104X
• DOI: 10.1002/jez.1402200105

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The rate of oxygen consumption (V̇) varies throughout metamorphosis in larvae of anuran amphibians. To determine whether variation in V̇ is best explained by variation in developmental stage (S), dry body mass (M), or their interaction, I measured V̇ in developmental series of four species. In all species M accounted for most (59–90%) of the variation in V̇. Developmental stage has relatively little effect on V̇ after appropriate correction for differences in M among samples; S accounted for no more than 2% of the variation in V̇ in two genera (Bufo, Rana) and no more than 7% in a third (Hymenochirus). Late stages of metamorphosis were not examined in these larvae. In Xenopus larvae, S has little effect upon V̇ until late stages of metamorphosis, in which some but not all larvae had reduced V̇. The general relationship between V̇ and M in anuran larvae at 25°C is V̇ = 3.1 M^0.827^, where V̇ is in μl O~2~ STPD ·hr^−1^ and M is in mg. Because the exponent of M, 0.827, is less than 1.0, expression of V̇ as V̇ ·M^−1^ fails to correct for differences in M in statistical analyses. Most prior studies of larval V̇ require reevaluation because of statistical and methodological problems.