Altitudinal Variation in Digestive Tract Length in Yunnan Pond Frog (Pelophylax pleuraden)

作     者：Shangling LOU Yanhong LI Long JIN Zhiping MI Wenchao LIU Wenbo LIAO 

作者机构：Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education) China West Normal University Institute of Rare Animals and Plants College of Life Sciences China West Normal University 

出 版 物：《Asian Herpetological Research》 (亚洲两栖爬行动物研究（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2013年第4卷第4期

页      面：263-267页

核心收录：

学科分类：07[理学] 0713[理学-生态学] 

基　　金：Financial support was provided by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (31101633) 

主　　题：altitudinal gradient digestive tract Pelophylax pleuraden Ningnan county 

摘      要：The digestive tract plays an important role in digestion and the acquisition of food energy. Understanding the impact of abiotic environments on digestive tract morphology is especially important for evolution of digestive tract across different environments. Here, we investigated altitudinal variation in digestive tract length in the Yunnan Pond Frog （Pelophylaxpleuraden） across five populations ranging from 1413 m to 1935 m a.s.1, in Ningnan County, Sichuan province in western China. Frogs were collected during the breeding season, from 1-5 June 2012. Our results revealed that females had longer digestive tract and relative digestive tract （i.e. digestive tract length / body size） lengths in com- parison to males, on average, but the differences between them decreased with increasing altitude. Digestive tract and relative digestive tract lengths increased with increasing altitude suggesting that a higher proportion of indigestible ma- terials may be consumed at high-altitude sites and result in a relative increase in digestive tract dimensions.