Data from: Anuran call properties as reliable indicators of environmental suitability for reproduction
Data files
Dec 12, 2025 version files 5.94 KB
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Pekny_Todd_Post_Call_Properties.csv
3.41 KB
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README.md
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Abstract
The onset of animal breeding activity is often accompanied by auditory signals, typically produced by males, that indicate reproductive status to potential mates and competitors. Here, using male anuran advertisement calls as a case study, we present the novel hypothesis that characteristics of ectotherm auditory signals that are modulated by temperature may also serve as bioclimatic indicators of the suitability of proximal abiotic conditions for reproduction. According to this hypothesis, thermal constraints on signal characteristics, such as call rate and duration, may facilitate tracking of environmental conditions by females. Through integrative analysis of empirical ecological studies, we demonstrate how variation in call properties may influence female reproductive physiology and behavior. We then outline how this proposed mechanism may enable environmental tracking and phenological shifts with climate change, provide guidelines for experimentally testing this hypothesis, and discuss applications of findings from this research to conservation management for species of concern.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3tx95x6qs
We recorded frog calls in an experiment to examine the influence of water temperature on the properties of anuran advertisement calls. In 2022 and repeated in 2023, wild-caught male Sierran chorus frogs (Pseudacris sierra) were housed in outdoor aquaria that were assigned one of three experimentally-controlled water temperature treatments—chilled, ambient, or heated. In 10-minute experimental trials, we recorded the advertisement calls of each frog and the temperature of water in each aquarium. Frogs were rotated through aquaria so that each frog was recorded once in each water temperature. We measured the variables of interest for this experiment—call duration and call rate of advertisement calls—using RavenPro, then calculated the average duration of calls and weighted average call rate for each experimental trial.
Because call rate and duration can only be measured when males emit calls in trials, data from trials in which males did not call during the experimental period were excluded from this dataset. The file Pekny_Todd_Post_Call_Properties.csv contains all data used to create Figure 1 in Panel 1 of the associated manuscript published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment: the identifying number for trial and focal frog, date, water temperature measured in degrees Celsius during the trial, frog mass (measured in grams), frog snout-vent length (SVL; measured in millimeters), frog condition (calculated as mass divided by SVL), the average duration of the first 21 consecutive calls, and the weighted average call rate from all time series per trial.
Further analysis of these data is provided in Panel S1 of the online supporting information for the associated manuscript.
Description of the data and file structure
Data columns are labeled without abbreviation for ease of use, except for "ID" representing the identifying number used for trials and frogs. The format “MM/DD/YYYY” is used in the ‘date’ column. Measurements (water temperature, frog mass, frog length, and average call duration) have units specified in column titles. Weighted average call rate is reported as number of calls per second.
Sharing/Access information
These data were collected from a field experiment conducted by the authors and were not accessed through any repository.