No evidence for cold-adapted life-history traits in cool-climate populations of invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina)

As an invasive organism spreads into a novel environment, it may encounter strong selective pressures to adapt to abiotic and biotic challenges. We examined the effect of water temperature during larval life on rates of survival and growth of the early life-history stages of cane toads (Rhinella mar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2022-04, Vol.17 (4), p.e0266708-e0266708
Main Authors: Wijethunga, Uditha, Greenlees, Matthew, Elphick, Melanie, Shine, Richard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Animals
Biology and Life Sciences
Bufo marinus - physiology
Climate
Climate and population
Cold tolerance
Conspecifics
Divergence
Environmental conditions
Environmental science
Gene flow
Influence
Introduced Species
Laboratories
Larva
Life history
Locomotor activity
Low temperature
Metamorphosis
Nonnative species
People and Places
Phylogeny
Populations
Rhinella marina
Seasonal variations
Site selection
Spawning
Success
Survival
Temperature effects
Toads
Water
Water temperature
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Summary:As an invasive organism spreads into a novel environment, it may encounter strong selective pressures to adapt to abiotic and biotic challenges. We examined the effect of water temperature during larval life on rates of survival and growth of the early life-history stages of cane toads (Rhinella marina) from two geographic regions (tropical vs. temperate) in the species' invaded range in eastern Australia. If local adaptation at the southern (cool-climate) invasion front has extended the cold-tolerance of early life-stages, we would expect to see higher viability of southern-population toads under cooler conditions. Our comparisons revealed no such divergence: the effects of water temperature on rates of larval survival and growth, time to metamorphosis, size at metamorphosis and locomotor performance of metamorphs were similar in both sets of populations. In two cases where tropical and temperate-zone populations diverged in responses to temperature, the tropical animals performed better at low to medium temperatures than did conspecifics from cooler regions. Adaptation to low temperatures in the south might be constrained by behavioural shifts (e.g., in reproductive seasonality, spawning-site selection) that allow toads to breed in warmer water even in cool climates, by gene flow from warmer-climate populations, or by phylogenetic conservatism in these traits.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0266708