DOI: 10.5061/dryad.dz08kprtv
title: The roles of acclimation and behavior in buffering climate change impacts along elevational gradients

description: 1. The vulnerability of species to climate change is jointly influenced by
 geographic phenotypic variation, acclimation, and behavioral
 thermoregulation. The importance of interactions between these factors,
 however, remains poorly understood. 2. We demonstrate how advances in
 mechanistic niche modelling can be used to integrate and assess the
 influence of these sources of uncertainty in forecasts of climate change
 impacts. 3. We explored geographic variation in thermal tolerance (i.e.
 maximum and minimum thermal limits) and its potential for acclimation in
 juvenile European common frogs (Rana temporaria) along elevational
 gradients. Further, we employed a mechanistic niche model (NicheMapR) to
 assess the relative contributions of phenotypic variation, acclimation and
 thermoregulation in determining the impacts of climate change on thermal
 safety margins and activity windows. 4. Our analyses revealed that high
 elevation populations had slightly wider tolerance ranges driven by
 increases in heat tolerance but lower potential for acclimation.
 Plausibly, wider thermal fluctuations at high elevations favor more
 tolerant but less plastic phenotypes, thus reducing the risk of
 encountering stressful temperatures during unpredictable extreme events.
 Biophysical models of thermal exposure indicated that observed phenotypic
 and plastic differences provide limited protection from changing climates.
 Indeed, the risk of reaching body temperatures beyond the species’ thermal
 tolerance range was similar across elevations. In contrast, the ability to
 seek cooler retreat sites through behavioral adjustments played an
 essential role in buffering populations from thermal extremes predicted
 under climate change. Predicted climate change also altered current
 activity windows, but high-elevation populations were predicted to remain
 more temporally constrained than lowland populations. 5. Our results
 demonstrate that elevational variation in thermal tolerances and
 acclimation capacity might be insufficient to buffer temperate amphibians
 from predicted climate change; instead, behavioral thermoregulation may be
 the only effective mechanism to avoid thermal stress under future
 climates.
description: This data package contains experimentally measured critical
 thermal limits of juvenile <em>Rana temporaria</em> from
 populations distributed across elevations. These data are presented in
 Enriquez-Urzelai et al. 2020 The roles of acclimation and behavior in
 buffering climate change impacts along elevational gradients.
 <em>Journal of Animal Ecology</em>. The
 dataset file is called "CTs.txt" and contains 10
 columns: 1: (Pop) population of origin of each analysed
 individual.<br> 2: (ID) the identification number of each analysed
 individual.<br> 3: (treat) the acclimation temperature for the
 larval stage. Either 14 or 24ºC.<br> 4: (CT) value of critical
 thermal limit in ºC. Could be either CTmax or CTmin. See column No.
 8<br> 5: (S0) survival immediately after critical thermal limits
 tests. y=yes, n=no<br> 6: (S24) survival 24-h after critical thermal
 limits tests y=yes, n=no<br> 7: (W) weight when critical thermal
 limits tests were conducted in mg<br> 8: (min.max) wether CT values
 correspond to CTmin (min) or CTmax (max)<br> 9: (device) device with
 which CT tests were conducted<br> 10: (date) date when CT tests were
 conducted Please contact Urtzi Enriquez-Urzelai
 (urtzi.enriquez@gmail.com) with any questions about these data.