Severus D. COVACIU-MARCOV 1, *, Alfred. CICORT-LUCACIU 1 and Nicoleta DIMANCEA 2

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1 North-Western Journal of Zoology Vol. 5, No. 2, 2009, pp P-ISSN: , E-ISSN: Article No.: What do the newly discovered Lissotriton montandoni (Caudata, Salamandridae) populations from Iezer Mountains, Romania, have to say about the species southern distribution limit? Severus D. COVACIU-MARCOV 1, *, Alfred. CICORT-LUCACIU 1 and Nicoleta DIMANCEA 2 1. University of Oradea, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Biology; Universit ii str.1, Oradea , Romania. 2. University of Oradea, Faculty of of History, Geography and International Relations, Department of Geography, Tourism and Territorial Planning, Universit ii str.1, Oradea , Romania * Corresponding author: S.D. Covaciu-Marcov, scovaciu@uoradea.ro Abstract. Lissotriton montandoni (Boulenger, 1880) has been identified further west than was previously known, in Iezer Mountains in Southern Romania. The westward limit of the species is situated in the Târgului River basin, which is tributary to Arge River. The absence of the species further west in the Iezer or F g ra Mountains may best be explained by glaciation. Thus, the species may have had a glacial refugium near Iezer Mountain and subsequently recolonised the region east and north-eastwards with the warming of the climate. Key words: Lissotriton montandoni, southern distribution limit, Romania. The Carpathian newt, Lissotriton montandoni (Boulenger, 1880), is a European endemic species, being restricted to the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia and Poland and to some areas of the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine and Romania (Cog lniceanu 1997). The southern limit of the species area lies in Romania (Cog lniceanu 1997). L. montandoni is a mountainous species, being limited to altitudes of at least 500m (Cog lniceanu et al. 2000). The species preference for high areas limits its distribution in Romania, and is almost exclusively found in the mountain regions and rarely in nearby foothills (Cog lniceanu et al. 2000, Ghira et al. 2002, Iftime 2005, Covaciu-Marcov et al. 2007). The Carpathian newt is constantly present in the Oriental Carpathians and in a very low proportion in the Middle Carpathians (Cog lniceanu et al. 2000). The distributional limit in the Oriental Carpathians is clearly marked, being represented by the inferior limit of the mountains, while the boundary in the Middle Carpathians is extremely imprecise and has not been clearly delimited. In the Romanian scientific literature, the south-western limit of the species area is considered to be Mâra Valley and Iezer Mountains, which belong to the hydrographical basin of the river Dâmbovi a (Cog lniceanu et al. 2000) (Fig.1). This limit is extremely steep and seems to be in any way without logic and without a plausible explanation for it. This region is positioned practically in the middle of a mountain massif which continues westwards with sectors that exceed 1000m altitude. The NwjZ, Oradea, Romania, Oradea, Romania

2 430 Covaciu-Marcov, S.D. et al. highest mountains from the country, F g ra Mountains which surpass 2500m (Mândru 2006), lie in the area. Therefore, there are no geographical reasons that can explain the species absence further west. Moreover, no climatic differences seem to exist between the areas in which the species was found and the ones in which it wasn t from Iezer and then from F g ra Mountains (Stoenescu et al. 1966). The only actual possible and plausible geographical boundary of the species westwards would be Olt River, which digs up a passage that splits the Middle Carpathians in two, passage that comprises altitudes between 300 and 400m, which is too low for the species. If River Olt should represent the barrier, that would mean that L. montandoni is entirely present in Iezer and then in F g ra, therefore with over 100km westwards than it was signalled. In light of this, out aim was to establish the distribution of the Carpathian newt in Iezer and F g ra Mountains from Romania, and to clearly outline the species distribution. The studies took place during the summers of 2008 and 2009, starting in areas where there were known populations and searching westwards along the southern face of the mountains. We advanced on different valleys, moving upstream until the higher areas of over 1000m. There we investigated both the aquatic habitats where the animals were captured with net; and terrestrial environments, where newts were looked for under different shelters (rocks, logs). L. montandoni was identified further west than it was previously known. However, it was observed only in the Iezer Mountains region, being encountered in the hydrographical basin of Târgului River, which is tributary to Arge River (Fig.1). This lies approximately 30km from the extreme western point previously known. The species is largely distributed in the basin of the Târgului River, being present from Pojorâta locality upstream to Voina chalet. It was found from 700m to over 1100m, an altitudinal limit that is normal for this species (Fuhn 1960). Carpathian newts were always found in the same habitat and location as Mesotriton alpestris, which is however more abundant. At low altitudes, the species also appears together with Lissotriton vulgaris. L. montandoni reproduces in puddles or marshy areas, but also in water bogging sectors (Fig.2). In the terrestrial phase, it populates the areas found nearby the streams (Fig.3). We also encountered two hybrid individuals with L. vulgaris, one found in a puddle together with both parental species, while the other one was seen in a terrestrial phase, at 1000m altitude, in an area where L. vulgaris was missing. Although we systematically searched in the valleys situated westwards of the Târgului River, we have not encountered Carpathian newts. Thus in the Bughea and Br tia valleys (situated immediately west of Iezer Mountains) we climbed until over 1100m, stopping at all reproducing habitat encountered. Although M. alpestris is constantly present in large populations in both valleys, we have not identified a L. montandoni individual, hybrids with L. vulgaris, or an individual of this species that presents at least one character of L. montandoni. Moreover, we have searched for Carpathian newts even further west on the main course of Arge, including ascending the Transf g r an road, but we have not found any individual, although here M. alpestris is commonly found. These discoveries do not answer all the

3 Southern distribution limit of Lissotriton montandoni 431 Figure 1. The south-western distribution limit of L. montandoni in Romania. Blue dot: literature data (see text); Red dots: current study; Green dots: another investigated valleys, without the presence of L.montandoni. Figure 2. Reproducing habitat of L. montandoni near Lere ti Figure 3. Terrestrial habitat of L. montandoni at Voina chalet. questions raised in this study. They, move the boundary further westward, but do not offer a plausible barrier to the distribution of the Carpathian newt. From this survey, it

4 432 Covaciu-Marcov, S.D. et al. seems that the limit of the species distribution is extremely sharp, being represented by the summit that limits to the east the hydrographical basin of the Târgului River, the species being undetected westwards of it. None of the present conditions (both geomorphologic and climatic factors) seem to explain this area limit which is sharply defined, especially when the species that has close ecological requirements, M. alpestris, is commonly present in Iezer and F g ra. If none of the present conditions seem to explain the distribution limit of the species, an explanation may be offered by the past conditions, especially by the ones from the last glacial maximum and from the postglacial period. It should be mentioned that in Romania there are at least two genetically distinct groups of L. montandoni which are believed to have arisen from different glacial refugia (Babik et al. 2005). Thus, the southern group, from which the populations from Iezer Mountains belong to, is different from the one existing in the northern Romanian Carpathians (Babik et al. 2005). In the last glacial maximum, the southern group must have had the glacial refuge somewhere near the massifs from the eastern part of the Middle Carpathians. We suggest Iezer Mountains as being the most likely location for such a refuge. It has the shape of a cup with the concavity oriented southwards, which is protected northwards by a double system of crests with high altitudes. Thus, Iezer has peaks of m, while F g ra flanks it northwards with crests of over 2500 m (Tufescu 1986). Thus, in the glacial period these double crests may have protected Iezer s cup from the cold northern air masses. On the other hand further evidence to suggest this comes from two fish species that have definitely survived the last glacial maximum. Romanichthys valsanicola and Cottus transsilvaniae, both of which are endemic to the Arge river hydrographical system (Dumitrescu et al. 1957, Freyhof et al. 2005). The absence of the Carpathian newt westwards of the Târgului River may be a consequence of extinction, due to a lack of appropriate refuigia. It s presence within the Târgului River system, may be explained by a refuge protected by Iezer Mountains. Once with the postglacial warming of the climate, L. montandoni extended eastwards and northeast because these were directions in concordance with its ecological requirements. The expansion westwards was more difficult, because initially it would have needed to move southwards in order to surpass the Peak Iezer Mare, which would have taken it out of its preferred environment. From our point of view, this extremely unintuitive distributional limit is a consequence of the fact that a group of the species had in the area a glacial refugium and together with the warming of the climate it has recolonised in an eastern, north-eastern direction. With this explanation, the lack of the Carpathian newt in the western part of Iezer and F g ra seems logical, L. montandoni not having a refuge there and being unable to migrate in that direction once warming began after the last glacial maximum. References Babik, W., Branicki, W., Crnobrnja-Isailovic, J., Cog lniceanu, D., Sas, I., Olgun, K., Poyarkov, N. A., Garcia-Paris, M., Arntzen, J. W. (2005): Phylogeography of two European newt species - discordance between mtdna and morphology. Molecular Ecology 14: Cog lniceanu, D. (1997): Triturus montandoni (Boulenger, 1880). pp In: Gasc, J.P. (ed.): Atlas of

5 Southern distribution limit of Lissotriton montandoni 433 Amphibians and Reptiles in Europe. Museum National D Histoire Naturelle, Paris. Cog lniceanu, D., Aioanei, F., Bogdan, M. (2000): Amfibienii din România, Determinator. Ed. Ars Docendi, Bucharest. [in Romanian] Covaciu-Marcov, S.D., Cicort-Lucaciu, A.., Feren i, S. (2007): Some low altitude Triturus montandoni (Amphibia: Salamandridae) population records from Oa region, North-Western Romania. North- Western Journal of Zoology 3(2): Dumitrescu, M., B n rescu, P., Stoica, N. (1957): Romanichthys valsanicola n. gen. N. sp. (Pisces, Percidae). Travaux du Muséum National d'histoire Naturelle Grigore Antipa 1: Fuhn, I. (1960): Amphibia. Fauna R.P.R., vol. XIV, Fascicola I. Ed. Academiei R.P.R., Bucharest. [in Romanian] Freyhof, J., Kottelat, M., Nolte, A. (2005): Taxonomic diversity of European Cottus with description of eight new species (Teleostei: Cottidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freswaters 16: Ghira, I., Venczel, M., Covaciu-Marcov, S.-D., Mara, Gy., Ghile, P., Hartel, T., Török, Zs., Farkas, L., Rácz, T., Farkas, Z., Brad, T. (2002): Mapping of Transylvanian Herpetofauna. Nymphaea, Folia Naturae Bihariae 29: Iftime, Al. (2005): Amfibieni i Reptile. In: Botnariuc, N., Tatole, V. (eds.): Cartea Ro ie a Vertebratelor din România. Ed. Academiei Române, Bucharest. [in Romanian]. Mândru, O. (2006): Mic Atlas de Geografie a României. Ed. Corint, Bucharest. [in Romanian] Stoenescu,. M., chiop, A., Dica, I., Popescu, E., Patrichi, E., epe, E. (1966): Atlasul climatologic al R.S.R.., Bucharest. [in Romanian] Tufescu, V. (1986): Harta Republicii Socialiste România. Ed. Didactic i Pedagogic, Bucharest. [in Romanian] Submitted: 04 March 2009 / Accepted: 30 August 2009 Published Online: 11 November 2009