峨眉齿蟾蝌蚪功能性状种内变异的研究

Study of Intraspecific Variation in Functional Traits of Oreolalax omeimontis Tadpoles

种内变异在生态学和进化学研究中具有重要意义,两栖动物功能生态学研究主要关注物种与物种之间功能性状的差异,而忽略了物种内功能性状的潜在差异。本文以峨眉齿蟾 Oreolalax omeimontis 蝌蚪为研究对象,详细研究了其功能性状的种内变异情况。结果表明,峨眉齿蟾蝌蚪的功能性状在不同发育阶段存在较大变异(平均变异系数为13.95%±12.79%),3个发育阶段的功能丰富度之间的差异无统计学意义,但其功能定位之间的差异却有统计学意义,且两两之间的功能生态位重叠度极低,表明3个发育阶段的蝌蚪占据着显著不同的功能生态位。建议在功能生态学研究中,需将不同发育阶段的蝌蚪作为独立的功能性单元以便增强生态学家了解和预测生态系统功能和宏观生态格局的能力。

Most of the amphibian's functional ecology studies focused on the difference between species and ignored the potential difference within species. However, increasing research started to recognize the importance of intraspecific variation in ecology and evolution. In the present study, we quantified the intraspecific variation in functional traits of Oreolalax omeimontis tadpoles. Our results indicated the high intraspecific variation in O. omeimontis tadpoles functional traits (mean coefficient variation=13.95%±12.79%), which was caused by ontogenetic change. This is because despite functional richness had no significant difference, functional identities differed significantly, and functional overlaps were extremely low between stages. These results indicated that different stages of O. omeimontis tadpoles occupied distinct functional niche, suggesting that different stages should be considered as distinct functional entities in future functional studies. Therefore, we suggest that intraspecific traits variability should be considered in future functional studies to enhance the ability of ecologists to understand and predict ecosystem functioning and ecological patterns.