GlobTherm, a global database on thermal tolerances for aquatic and terrestrial organisms

Bennett, Joanne M.; Calosi, Piero; Clusella‐Trullas, Susana; Martínez, Brezo; Sunday, Jennifer M.; Algar, Adam C.; Araújo, Miguel B.; Hawkins, Bradford A.; Keith, Sally A.; Kühn, Ingolf; Rahbek, Carsten; Rodríguez, Laura; Singer, Alexander; Villalobos, Fabricio; Olalla‐Tárraga, Miguel Á.; Morales‐Castilla, Ignacio

doi:10.1038/sdata.2018.22

Cited by 186 publications

(187 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…As expected, upper thermal limits of the studied species were lower than those of most surface‐dwelling organisms (Bennett et al, ). However, the four species studied here can survive, at least for 1 week, at temperatures much higher than the narrow range currently experienced in their habitat (ca.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Heat tolerance and acclimation capacity in subterranean arthropods living under common and stable thermal conditions

Pallarés

Colado

Pérez‐Fernández³

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Cave‐dwelling ectotherms, which have evolved for millions of years under stable thermal conditions, could be expected to have adjusted their physiological limits to the narrow range of temperatures they experience and to be highly vulnerable to global warming. However, most of the few existing studies on thermal tolerance in subterranean invertebrates highlight that despite the fact that they show lower heat tolerance than most surface‐dwelling species, their upper thermal limits are generally not adjusted to ambient temperature. The question remains to what extent this pattern is common across subterranean invertebrates. We studied basal heat tolerance and its plasticity in four species of distant arthropod groups (Coleoptera, Diplopoda, and Collembola) with different evolutionary histories but under similar selection pressures, as they have been exposed to the same constant environmental conditions for a long time. Adults were exposed at different temperatures for 1 week to determine upper lethal temperatures. Then, individuals from previous sublethal treatments were transferred to a higher temperature to determine acclimation capacity. Upper lethal temperatures of three of the studied species were similar to those reported for other subterranean species (between 20 and 25°C) and widely exceeded the cave temperature (13–14°C). The diplopod species showed the highest long‐term heat tolerance detected so far for a troglobiont (i.e., obligate subterranean) species (median lethal temperature after 7 days exposure: 28°C) and a positive acclimation response. Our results agree with previous studies showing that heat tolerance in subterranean species is not determined by environmental conditions. Thus, subterranean species, even those living under similar climatic conditions, might be differently affected by global warming.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Heat tolerance and acclimation capacity in subterranean arthropods living under common and stable thermal conditions

Pallarés

Colado

Pérez‐Fernández³

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Additionally, if we selected the population with the highest CT max and the population with the lowest CT min per species, as sometimes applied in the literature (Table ), again CT max variance was nearly two times larger than CT min variance across species (Figure b). For comparison, the global database GlobTherm (Bennett et al, ) collates paired CT max and CT min ratios for 161 squamate reptiles with an overall CT min ‐to‐CT max variance ratio across species of 1.58 (cold‐tolerance asymmetry, Figure a). In contrast, in our dataset, for population samples with heat‐tolerance asymmetry the cross‐species CT max variance‐to‐CT min variance ratio exceeded the GlobTherm ratio in >3 of every four population samples (heat‐tolerance asymmetry, Figure a), and for population samples with cold‐tolerance asymmetry the cross‐species CT min ‐to‐CT max variance ratio exceeded the GlobTherm ratio in <1 of every 10 populations samples (cold‐tolerance asymmetry, Figure a).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, latitudinal clines of thermal tolerance for several beetle species are more pronounced for heat tolerance in the southern (hot) margins of species distributions than for cold tolerance in the northern (cold) margins (Calosi, Bilton, Spicer, Votier, & Atfield, ). The investigation of asymmetries in heat and cold tolerance over multiple spatial scales thus represents a critical area of future development in macroecological research, and warrants future efforts towards the collation of global databases covering already available population‐ and species‐level metrics of thermal performance (see Bennett et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat tolerance is more variable than cold tolerance across species of Iberian lizards after controlling for intraspecific variation

et al. 2020

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The widespread observation that heat tolerance is less variable than cold tolerance (‘cold‐tolerance asymmetry’) leads to the prediction that species exposed to temperatures near their thermal maxima should have reduced evolutionary potential for adapting to climate warming. However, the prediction is largely supported by species‐level global studies based on single estimates of both physiological metrics per taxon. We ask whether cold‐tolerance asymmetry holds for Iberian lizards after accounting for intraspecific variation in critical thermal maxima (CTmax) and minima (CTmin). To do so, we quantified CTmax and CTmin for 58 populations of 15 Iberian lizard species (299 individuals). Then, we randomly selected one population from each study species (population sample = 15 CTmax and CTmin values), tested for differences between the variance of both thermal metrics across species, and repeated the test for thousands of population samples as if we had undertaken the same study thousands of times, each time sampling one different population per species (as implemented in global studies). The ratio of variances in CTmax to CTmin across species varied up to 16‐fold depending on the populations chosen. Variance ratios show how much CTmax departs from the cross‐species mean compared to CTmin, with a unitary ratio indicating equal variance of both thermal limits. Sampling one population per species was six times more likely to result in the observation of greater CTmax variance (‘heat‐tolerance asymmetry’) than cold‐tolerance asymmetry. The probability of obtaining the data (given the null hypothesis of equal variance being true) was twice as likely for cases of cold‐tolerance asymmetry than for the opposite scenario. Range‐wide, population‐level studies that quantify heat and cold tolerance of individual species are urgently needed to ascertain the global prevalence of cold‐tolerance asymmetry. While broad latitudinal clines of cold tolerance have been strongly supported, heat tolerance might respond to smaller‐scale climatic and habitat factors hence go unnoticed in global studies. Studies investigating physiological responses to climate change should incorporate the extent to which thermal traits are characteristic of individuals, populations and/or species. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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“…The generation of novel physiological data for more species from the tree of life is indeed a pressing endeavour (Pörtner & Farrell, ). Thus, the recent collation of the GlobTherm database (Bennett et al., : species‐level metrics of thermal tolerance for 2133 taxa globally) highlights voids of knowledge in the most diverse eukaryotic groups (algae, plants, invertebrates) and in vast stretches of northernmost Africa, America and Eurasia. Bennett et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bennett et al. () foresaw the inclusion of intraspecific variation in future versions of the dataset, and those updates will quantify the existing bias in thermal‐trait information for species vs. populations. All the same, acquiring estimates of thermal traits over broader expanses of the geographical ranges of single species seems essential (Chown & Gaston, ) before we might be able to address cross‐taxa patterns and drivers of heat tolerance in a biologically comprehensive way.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific variation in lizard heat tolerance alters estimates of climate impact

Herrando‐Pérez

Ferri‐Yáñez

Monasterio

et al. 2018

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Research addressing the effects of global warming on the distribution and persistence of species generally assumes that population variation in thermal tolerance is spatially constant or overridden by interspecific variation. Typically, this rationale is implicit in sourcing one critical thermal maximum (CTmax) population estimate per species to model spatiotemporal cross‐taxa variation in heat tolerance. Theory suggests that such an approach could result in biased or imprecise estimates and forecasts of impact from climate warming, but limited empirical evidence in support of those expectations exists. We experimentally quantify the magnitude of intraspecific variation in CTmax among lizard populations, and the extent to which incorporating such variability can alter estimates of climate impact through a biophysical model. To do so, we measured CTmax from 59 populations of 15 Iberian lizard species (304 individuals). The overall median CTmax across all individuals from all species was 42.8°C and ranged from 40.5 to 48.3°C, with species medians decreasing through xeric, climate‐generalist and mesic taxa. We found strong statistical support for intraspecific differentiation in CTmax by up to a median of 3°C among populations. We show that annual restricted activity (operative temperature > CTmax) over the Iberian distribution of our study species differs by a median of >80 hr per 25‐km2 grid cell based on different population‐level CTmax estimates. This discrepancy leads to predictions of spatial variation in annual restricted activity to change by more than 20 days for six of the study species. Considering that during restriction periods, reptiles should be unable to feed and reproduce, current projections of climate‐change impacts on the fitness of ectotherm fauna could be under‐ or over‐estimated depending on which population is chosen to represent the physiological spectra of the species in question. Mapping heat tolerance over the full geographical ranges of single species is thus critical to address cross‐taxa patterns and drivers of heat tolerance in a biologically comprehensive way.

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GlobTherm, a global database on thermal tolerances for aquatic and terrestrial organisms

Cited by 186 publications

References 25 publications

Heat tolerance and acclimation capacity in subterranean arthropods living under common and stable thermal conditions

Heat tolerance and acclimation capacity in subterranean arthropods living under common and stable thermal conditions

Heat tolerance is more variable than cold tolerance across species of Iberian lizards after controlling for intraspecific variation

Intraspecific variation in lizard heat tolerance alters estimates of climate impact

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