Abstract: | The Amphibians are greatly dependent on the aquatic environment; their attachment is different. There are species that live their whole life cycle in water; other species use water only for laying eggs (Fuhn 1960, Cogãlniceanu et al 2000). The characteristics and the specific traits of the water have a great influence on Amphibians; its p. h. affects the Rana arvalis larvae (Pahkala et al 2001), the oxygen level influences the Rana ridibunda larvae (Berger 1982). The water temperature, one of the most important parameters of the aquatic environment that influences the Amphibians has a great impact on them as it effects from a cellular level to a population level (Rome et al 1992). The water temperature influences the most of the bio – chemical processes of the Amphibians, changing even the duration of the development of the larvae (Bachman 1969).
In the North – West of Romania there is a special category of Amphibian – populated habitats that are the thermal waters. The amphibians in the thermal waters suffer a series of changes in their biology under the influence of the high and constant temperatures (Covaciu – Marcov et al 2003). We noted 5 thermal habitats in the County of Bihor where there are changes of the biology of the Amphibians in a previous article. The main changes of the biology of the Amphibians living in thermal waters are: the absence of hibernation, the disappearance of the period of lying eggs (fact that causes the continuous reproduction all year long and an increase in larval gigantism). In addition to this, the purpose of this study was that of assessing the spread of the phenomenon in the West of Romania as a consequence of the fact that thermal waters are widely spread in the area in both the County of Bihor and in the neighboring counties. The theoretical importance of this type of investigations is enormous, as the thermal waters are a kind of “laboratories” to the Amphibians. In spite the high theoretical importance of this kind of studies, there is little data on this subject in Romania, as only one study was conducted (Covaciu – Marcov et al 2003 a) and even in the foreign literature the subject was approached in a very small measure (Cucchiara & Bologna 1996). |
