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Gastric evacuation rates of adult and larval alpine newts ( Triturus alpestris ) under laboratory and field conditions
Author(s) -
SCHABETSBERGER R.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
freshwater biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.297
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2427
pISSN - 0046-5070
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2427.1994.tb00848.x
Subject(s) - larva , biology , triturus , zoology , ecology , salamandridae , stomach , fish <actinopterygii> , caudata , fishery , biochemistry
SUMMARY 1. The fits of exponential, square root, surface‐dependent and power exponential polynomials to gastric evacuation curves in alpine newts were compared. Both the more complex power exponential function and the exponential model provided good descriptions of gastric evacuation in adult and larval alpine newts. 2. Gastric evacuation rates of adult female and male alpine newts did not differ significantly. Temperature‐dependent gastric evacuation rates were strongly affected by the composition of the meals eaten in the natural habitat. The time for total gastric evacuation in adults was generally longer than reported for teleost fishes and was within the range reported for some elasmobranchs. 3. Gastric evacuation rates of newt larvae were low compared to fish larvae. Time for total emptying of the stomach increased exponentially with increasing body dry weight of larvae.