Climate change and the Coquí: Temperature-driven changes to frog calls in Puerto Rico
Werner, Kristen
Werner, Kristen
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Abstract
Frog’s calling behavior plays a key role in mate selection. Among the environmental factors known to influence calling behavior is temperature. Thus, in the context of a rapidly changing global climate, understanding how different species are impacted physiologically and behaviorally is relevant in the preservation of biodiversity. Here I study the calling behavior of the Coquí frogs of Puerto Rico in the context of temperature. In 2014, a study found significant changes in Coqui frogs call acoustic frequency and call duration since 1983 and explained the trend in the terms of metabolic rate costs due to rising ambient temperature. Here, I study the acoustic structure (frequency and duration) of Coqui frogs from El Verde field station in the Luquillo forest of Puerto Rico using the RFCx Arbimon open access sound database recordings from the month of July from 2009-2015. Coqui frog’s calls are expected to continue to increase in fundamental frequency and decreased in duration as predicted by previous research due to gradually rising global temperature. The results from this study can help us understand the impact of climate change at a local scale.
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Undergraduate
Date
2021-01-01