Frog Maternal Investment Based on Altitude in Tibetan Plateau
Description
In order to understand whether maternal investment changes at varying altitudes on the Tibetan Plateau. The study sought to determine whether reproducing females allocated their energy to egg productions of size or number, which can both influence fitness.
Format
A data frame with 431 observations on the following 6 variables.
altitudeAltitude of study site in meters above sea level.
latitudeLatitude of study site measured in degrees.
clutch.sizeEstimated number of eggs in clutch.
body.sizeLength of mother frog who laid the egg clutch in cm.
clutch.volumeVolume of egg clutch in mm^3.
egg.sizeAverage diameter of an individual egg to the 0.01mm.
Details
From February to April 2013, the study team studied various populations of frog who live between 2035 to 3494 m above sea level in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. They located breeding ponds at various altitudes, and at each one, obtained a small sample of freshly laid egg clutches. They counted the number of eggs and weighed the clutch to determine egg weight, and approximated egg size from photographs.
Source
Data accessible from Dryad Digital Repository: http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6v0c1
Chen, W., et al. Maternal investment increases with altitude in a frog on the Tibetan Plateau. Journal of evolutionary biology 26.12 (2013): 2710-2715.