Eleutherodactylus frogs show frequency but no temporal partitioning: implications for the acoustic niche hypothesis

PeerJ. 2014 Jul 22:2:e496. doi: 10.7717/peerj.496. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Individuals in acoustic communities compete for the use of the sound resource for communication, a problem that can be studied as niche competition. The acoustic niche hypothesis presents a way to study the partitioning of the resource, but the studies have to take into account the three dimensions of this niche: time, acoustic frequency, and space. I used an Automated Digital Recording System to determine the partitioning of time and acoustic frequency of eight frogs of the genus Eleutherodactylus from Puerto Rico. The calling activity was measured using a calling index. The community exhibited no temporal partitioning since most species called at the same time, between sunset and midnight. The species partitioned the acoustic frequency of their signals, which, in addition to the microhabitat partitioning, can provide some insight into how these species deal with the problem. This data also suggest that monitoring projects with this group should take place only before midnight to avoid false negatives.

Keywords: Acoustic niche hypothesis; Bioacoustics; Community; Eleutherodactylus; Puerto Rico.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by a fellowship from the “Attaining Research Extensive University Status in Puerto Rico: Building a Competitive Infrastructure” award from the National Science Foundation (0223152) to the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.