SERRANO, JERMAINE ROSE P.

3BIO-4
The Effects of Water and Habitat Quality on Amphibians in Taal Lake
Water plays a fundamental role in our daily life: drinking, bathing, cooking, washing,
farming, garden irrigation, transportation, industrial raw materials, recreation and sport,
production of hydroelectric power, building construction, and agriculture and wildlife
survival (Igbozurike 1998; Simons, 1999; Ajibade, 2004).
Taal Lake is a freshwater lake in the province of Batangas, on the island of Luzon in
the Philippines. Volcano Island, the location of Taal Volcano's historical eruptions and
responsible for the lake's sulfuric content, lies near the center of the lake. There is a crater
lake on Volcano Island, which is the world's largest lake on an island (Volcano Island) in a
lake (Taal Lake) on an island (Luzon). Because the lake was previously connected to the sea,
it is home to many endemic species that have evolved and adapted to the desalination of the
lake's waters.
Amphibians are ectothermic, tetrapod vertebrates of the class Amphibia. Modern
amphibians are all Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats with most species
living within terrestrial, fossorial, arboreal or freshwater aquatic ecosystems. Habitat plays a
major role in the life of an organism. Lake Taal contains sulfur which can affect an organism
in various ways. Elemental sulfur can display strong toxic properties in live organisms and
plants. The concentration of elemental sulfur in sediments depends on location and depth
(Kukliska, Wolska, Namienik, & Cieszynska, 2013).
There are significant pressures on freshwater ecosystems caused by human activities.
Water availability and quality are deteriorating due to climate change and land use activities
(mining, logging, industrial, sewage discharges) (Jahning, 2010). These activities introduce

hazardous chemicals that suppress populations and diversity of aquatic organisms (UNEP,
1991; Boyer & Grue, 1995)
Variation in physical and chemical properties and habitat destruction of the Taal Lake
as a result of human activities would affect abundance and diversity of amphibians. Taal Lake
is used for fish caging. Last 2008, fish kill in Taal Lake transpired. The scientists said that
Toxic sulfur and high level of hydrogen sulfide in Ambulong while low dissolved oxygen
caused the deaths. Since a lake is somewhat isolated to other bodies of water, the chemicals
that cause the fish kills may still be in the lake. These chemicals may affect the amphibians
living primarily in water, and also the eggs that are laid there.
Most amphibians lay their eggs on water. In order for the egg to develop, hatch, and,
most importantly, survive it must first be laid in an environment that is favourable to them.
The desalination of water in Taal Lake made the water in it fresh. Amphibians are commonly
found in freshwaters. Lake Taal has sulfur contents because of the volcanos historical
eruptions. Hence, sulfur may have affected the amphibians in some ways, positively or
negatively, and/or the amphibians have adapted to it.
Climate change is also a factor in the aquatic ecosystem in Taal Lake. Taal has two
seasons: dry from November to April, and wet during the rest of the year. The lowest
minimum temperature does not drop below 20 C (68 F) while the highest maximum
temperature of 34.5 C (94.1 F) occurs from March to July of each year. Direct
consequences of climate change can be expected because amphibians may be more sensitive
to climate change than other species. Because of their permeable skin, biphasic lifecycles and
unshelled eggs, amphibians are extremely sensitive to small changes in temperature and
moisture (Carey and Alexander 2003).

The timing of amphibian breeding is largely driven by environmental cues such as

temperature and moisture (Carey and Alexander 2003); because of this, their breeding
phenology may be directly affected by global warming. Most temperate species spend a large
portion of the year inactive, escaping either cold winters or hot summers. Subtle increases in
temperature or moisture trigger them to emerge from their hibernacula. Immediately upon
emergence, they migrate to ponds or streams to breed. Thus, one hypothesized direct affect of
global warming on amphibians is a trend towards early breeding as the average temperatures
increase.
A recent laboratory study done by Gervasi et al. (2008) investigated changes in
amphibian metamorphosis time due to pond desiccation and whether amphibian immune
system become compromised as a result these changes. They found that amphibian immune
responses became increasingly weaker and leucocyte counts were increasingly lower with
higher desiccation. These results suggest that a trade-off exists whereby rate of
metomorphosis increases under desiccation conditions, allowing for survival. This also
supports the view that climate effects are involved in weakened immune systems making it
more difficult for amphibians to fight off diseases.
References
[1] Carey, C., and M. A. Alexander. 2003. Climate change and amphibian declines: is there a
link? Diversity and Distributions 9:111-121.
[2]Gervasi SS, Foufopoulos J (2008) Costs of plasticity: responses to desiccation decrease
post-metamorphic immune function in a pond-breeding amphibian. Functional Ecology
22, 100-108.
[3]Simons, I.G. (1999), Earth, Air and Water Resources and Management in the Late 20th
Century., Edward Arnold, London, 254 pp.
[4]Jahning S.C. (2010). River Water Quality Assessment in Selected Yangtze Tributaries:
Background and Method Development. Journal of Earth Science, Vol. 21, No. 6, p.
876881
[5]Boyer, T. and Grue, C. E. (1995): The need for water quality criteria for frogs,
Environmental Health Preps. 103, 353357.

[6] (McDonald, Sayre, & V.Vredenburg, n.d.)

[7] Papa, R., & Mamaril, A. (n.d.). History of the biodiversity and limno-ecological studies
on Lake Taal with notes on the current state of Philippine limnology. Philippine Science
Letters, 4(1). Retrieved from http://www.philsciletters.org/pdf/2011n1.1.pdf
[8] Lyimo, E. (n.d.). Amphibian and benthic macroinvertebrate response to physical and
chemical properties of Themi River, Arusha, Tanzania. Retrieved from
http://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/bitstream/id/78275/Lyimo.pdf