Data from: movement or plasticity: acoustic responses of a torrent frog to stream geophony
Data files
Abstract
Vocalization is the main form of communication in many animals, including frogs, which commonly emit advertisement calls to attract females and maintain spacing. In noisy environments such as streams, mechanisms to maximize signaling efficiency may include vocal plasticity and/or movement of individuals to quieter sections, but which strategy is used is still uncertain. We investigated the influence of stream geophony on the advertisement call of the torrent frog Hylodes perere in the Atlantic Rainforest, southeastern Brazil. In a mark-recapture study, we tested if males remain in their territories and thus adjust their advertisement calls to maximize their communication. We ran mixed linear and generalized models to verify the relation of call parameters and stream geophony, body size and environmental temperature. We found that males remained in the same location across time, increased call intensity in noisier environments but did not reduce call effort. Males also increased the dominant frequency in these situations, suggesting a modulation in this parameter. Our results indicate that territoriality is an important factor to males to increase call intensity to surpass stream noise instead of repositioning along the stream. However, because call effort was maintained, we suggest that sexual selection is crucial in this system, favoring males that better detect others and adjust their call efficiency. This is the first study to evaluate simultaneously frog movements and adaptations to geophony, which contributes to the investigation of the concomitant environmental and sexual selective pressures in species that communicate in noisy environments.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.x95x69prs
We are providing the datasets (h_22.xlsx and ff.xlsx) and the R script (TurinandNali_script.R).
Description of the data and file structure
The columns in the dataset h_22.xlsx refer to:
ind = individuals
call = advertisement calls
stream = streams
section = stream sections
note_call = note within calls
call_dur_s = call duration (s)
note_dur_s = note duration (s)
Freq_5_Hz = frequency 5% (Hz)
Freq_95_Hz = frequency 95% (Hz)
Freq_P_Hz = dominant frequency (Hz)
call_int_s = interval between calls (s)
note_int_s = interval between notes (s)
note_rate_s = note rate (notes/s)
call_eff = call effort (ratio of sound to silence within a call) (%)
svl_mm = snout-vent length (mm)
bm_g = body mass (g)
air_temp_C = air temperature (ºC)
wat_temperature = water temperature (ºC)
SPL_c_dB = sound pressure level of calls (dB) already corrected by the recording distance
SPL_r_dB = sound pressure level of the stream (dB) already corrected by the recording distance
The columns in the ff.xlsx dataset refer to:
ind = individuals
FH_Hz = dominant frequency of the first harmonic band (Hz)
svl_mm = snout-vent length (mm)
bm_g = body mass (g)
wat_temperature = water temperature (ºC)
SPL_r_dB = sound pressure level of the stream (dB) already corrected by the recording distance
notes_meas = number of notes measured for each individual
calls_meas = number of calls measured for each individual