Reproductive variation in wide-ranging anurans: Clutch size variation across genetically similar populations

The number of studies examining genetic variation within what is currently a single species has increased over the past decade.  Several studies have examined genetic variation across a large geographic range for many amphibians, but few have simultaneously examined ecological variation in these taxa.  While genetic data are indeed powerful and can reveal a great deal about variation across distance in a species, they are more meaningful when examined in conjunction with some ecological measure.  I have compared genetic variation in 16S and cytochrome b markers with both call and clutch size for three common SE Asian anurans at two distant parts of their range.  These data show that while genetic data have relatively little variation between the two sites, calls can be the same or very different and clutch size is extremely variable.  Because of the differences in breeding season length (six months vs. twelve months), differences in clutch size can be interpreted as a response to environmental differences between the two locations.  This is one of the first studies on tropical amphibians showing little genetic variation but significant reproductive variation across a large geographic range.