Comparison of nitrate tolerance between different populations of the common frog, Rana temporaria

Abstract

Euthrophication-associated changes in the physical and biological environment of lakes and ponds are potentially a source of major stress for many aquatic organisms. In Scandinavia, the nitrate concentrations in lakes and ponds decrease towards north due to a naturally lower productivity of the habitats, but also due to lower supplementation of anthropogenic nitrogen. A chronic experiment using ecologically relevant concentrations of sodium nitrate (0-5000 μ gl-1) was used to test whether common frog (Rana temporaria L.) larvae from northern parts of Scandinavia are less well adapted to cope with high nitrate concentrations than those from the southern parts. Slight, but significant differences in nitrate tolerance, as measured in terms of growth rate and size at metamorphosis, between the two regions were found. High concentrations of nitrate reduced the growth rates and metamorphic size in north, but not in south. However, there was no clear-cut impact of high nitrate concentrations on developmental rate or on mortality until metamorphosis. The general lack of large effects of nitrate treatment on the response variables suggests that nitrates per se do not pose any significant threat to the development of R. temporaria tadpoles under a natural range of concentrations. This was confirmed in an acute test where results suggest that ammonia and nitrite, compounds seldom found in high concentrations in Fennoscandian lakes, are possibly responsible for the larger negative effects of 'nitrate' observed in previous studies of amphibians. Copyright © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V.