A comprehensive database of amphibian heat tolerance

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Climate Change Biology
• Zoology

Background:

• Rising global temperatures pose a significant threat to ectothermic organisms.
• Upper thermal limits are crucial for assessing ectotherm vulnerability to climate change.
• Existing datasets on thermal tolerance are often limited in scope and data representation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create the most comprehensive dataset on amphibian upper thermal limits to date.
• To provide a robust resource for evaluating amphibian vulnerability to rising temperatures.
• To overcome limitations of previous thermal tolerance datasets.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search across seven languages.
• Compilation of 3,095 upper thermal limit estimates.
• Inclusion of data from 616 amphibian species.

Main Results:

• A comprehensive dataset of amphibian upper thermal limits was generated.
• The dataset includes 3,095 estimates across 616 species.
• This resource addresses limitations of previous, smaller, and geographically biased datasets.

Conclusions:

• The compiled dataset is a valuable tool for assessing amphibian vulnerability to climate change.
• This resource can inform species distribution models and studies on thermal plasticity.
• It provides a foundation for broader ectotherm vulnerability assessments.