Data and code from: Direction and progression of thermal acclimation effects on ciliated protist populations both depend on direction of thermal change
Data files
May 08, 2026 version files 145.60 KB
-
codeforacclimation.R
10.23 KB
-
FullAcclimationBatch1.csv
63.24 KB
-
FullAcclimationBatch2.csv
30.78 KB
-
Key.csv
821 B
-
PartialAcclimation.csv
33.34 KB
-
README.md
7.19 KB
Abstract
Organisms acclimate to environmental temperatures to maintain physiological homeostasis. Acclimation can alter demographic rates, thereby affecting population dynamics. Previous research has demonstrated that acclimation can have positive or negative effects on population growth rates in variable thermal environments, depending on the amount of time acclimation takes. A clear picture of the timescale of acclimation may help identify the most consequential frequencies of thermal fluctuations for population dynamics. However, the progression of population-level effects of acclimation over time has not been explored.
We used experimental microcosms to test the effects of acclimation on population dynamics of the ciliated protist Colpidium striatum in various thermal regimes. We also observed the progression of these effects over the course of acclimation. Prior acclimation to cooler conditions increased intrinsic growth rates in warm trial conditions relative to the growth rates of warm-acclimated populations. In contrast, prior acclimation to warm conditions decreased intrinsic growth rates in cool trial conditions relative to the growth rates of cold-acclimated populations. These results are consistent with an overcompensatory acclimation response and either the “colder is better” or “optimal acclimation temperature” hypothesis, though we cannot distinguish between these two possibilities without an intermediate acclimation temperature treatment. The observed patterns may be due to resource uptake dynamics and/or increased stress at high temperatures with increased exposure duration. The progression of these effects over the course of acclimation also differed in trajectory, and perhaps duration, for populations acclimating to warmer versus cooler conditions. Differences in the effects and progress of thermal acclimation depending on the direction of thermal change suggest that different physiological mechanisms may be driving acclimation to warmer versus cooler conditions.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3ffbg79tf
Description of the data and file structure
This data was collected via experiments in protist microcosms with/without prior complete/partial acclimation to the experimental conditions. The focal organism was Colpidium striatum.
Files and variables
File: FullAcclimationBatch1.csv
Description: Data from the first batch of the Full Acclimation Experiments in which organisms either experienced at least a week of prior acclimation to the experimental conditions or experienced a different temperature prior to the experiment. Populations were grown up from low initial abundance to observe growth rate and allowed to continue until culture conditions declined, usually after carrying capacity was reached. Rows are measures of population abundance from a given microcosm on a given day and time.
Variables
- Date : date of population abundance measure, month/day/year
- Time : time of population abundance measure, military time
- Total hours elapsed: # hours since experiment began, hour:minute:second
- Hours.elapsed: # hours since experiment began, decimal format
- Species: Colpidium striatum for all experiments described here
- Most Recent Temp: most recent temperature experienced by the microcosm, Celsius
- Rep: replicate identifier number of thermal acclimation treatment, 1-3
- Acc: prior acclimation to experimental conditions yes (1) or no (0)
- ID: unique ID of replicate microcosm
- Sample Volume: volume of microcosm medium observed to count individuals, mL
- Dilution Volume: volume of sterile medium used to dilute the sample, if applicable (otherwise NA), mL
- Sub-sample volume: volume of diluted sample observed to count individuals, if applicable (otherwise NA), mL
- 2nd dilution volume: volume of sterile medium used to dilute the sample further, if applicable (otherwise NA), mL
- 2nd sub-sample volume: volume of second diluted sample observed to count individuals, if applicable (otherwise NA), mL
- Count: number of individuals counted in observed sample or, if diluted, in the diluted sample
- Density: calculated density of individuals per volume of microcosm medium, cells/mL
- Notes: explanation of each density observation's meaning in the context of the experiment
File: FullAcclimationBatch2.csv
Description: Data from the second batch of the Full Acclimation Experiments in which organisms either experienced at least a week of prior acclimation to the experimental conditions or experienced a different temperature prior to the experiment. Populations were grown up from low initial abundance to observe growth rate and allowed to continue until culture conditions declined, usually after carrying capacity was reached. Rows are measures of population abundance from a given microcosm on a given day and time.
Variables
- Date : date of population abundance measure, month/day/year
- Time : time of population abundance measure, military time
- Total hours elapsed: # hours since experiment began, hour:minute:second
- Hours.elapsed: # hours since experiment began, decimal format
- Species: Colpidium striatum for all experiments described here
- Most Recent Temp: most recent temperature experienced by the microcosm, Celsius
- Rep: replicate identifier number of thermal acclimation treatment, 1-3
- Acc: prior acclimation to experimental conditions yes (1) or no (0)
- ID: unique ID of replicate microcosm
- Sample Volume: volume of microcosm medium observed to count individuals, mL
- Dilution Volume: volume of sterile medium used to dilute the sample, if applicable (otherwise NA), mL
- Sub-sample volume: volume of diluted sample observed to count individuals, if applicable (otherwise NA), mL
- 2nd dilution volume: volume of sterile medium used to dilute the sample further, if applicable (otherwise NA), mL
- 2nd sub-sample volume: volume of second diluted sample observed to count individuals, if applicable (otherwise NA), mL
- Count: number of individuals counted in observed sample or, if diluted, in the diluted sample
- Density: calculated density of individuals per volume of microcosm medium, cells/mL
- Notes: explanation of each density observation's meaning in the context of the experiment
File: Key.csv
Description: Key of treatments applied to microcosms by ID. Rows are microcosms.
Variables
- ID: unique ID of replicate microcosm
- Species: Colpidium striatum for all experiments described here
- Rep: replicate identifier number of thermal acclimation treatment
- Acc: prior acclimation to experimental conditions yes (1) or no (0)
- AccTemp: temperature of prior acclimation for a given microcosm, Celsius
- FirstExpTemp: experimental temperature a given microcosm was subjected to, Celsius
File: PartialAcclimation.csv
Description: Data from the Partial Acclimation Experiments in which organisms experienced a range of time for prior acclimation to the experimental conditions or experienced a different temperature prior to the experiment. Populations were grown up from low initial abundance to observe growth rate. Rows are measures of population abundance from a given microcosm on a given day and time.
Variables
- Date_(m/d/yy): Date of measured population abundance, month/day/year
- Time_(military): Time of measured population abundance, military hour:min:sec
- Hours_Elapsed: Hours elapsed since experiment started
- Jar_#: Unique identifier number for each microcosm, H prefix for populations acclimated to 26C, L prefix for populations acclimated to 15C
- Jnum: Unique identifier number for each microcosm
- Rep: replicate identifier number of thermal acclimation treatment, 1-4
- AccDays: days spent acclimating to a given temperature prior to experiment
- Species: Colpidium striatum for all experiments described here
- Most_Recent_Temp: temperature experienced most recently by a microcosm at time of observation, Celsius
- Sample_Volume_(mL): volume of microcosm medium observed to count individuals in mL
- Dilution_Volume_(mL): volume of sterile medium used to dilute the sample, if applicable (otherwise NA), in mL
- Sub_sample_Volume: volume of diluted sample observed to count individuals, if applicable (otherwise NA), in mL
- 2nd_Dilution_Volume: volume of sterile medium used to dilute the sample further, if applicable (otherwise NA), in mL
- 2nd_Sub_sample_Volume: volume of second diluted sample observed to count individuals, if applicable (otherwise NA), in mL
- Count: number of individuals counted in observed sample or, if dilution occurred, in the diluted sample
- Density: calculated density of individuals per volume of microcosm medium in cells/mL
- Notes: explanation of each density observation's meaning in the context of the experiment
Code/software
The code file codeforacclimation.R is an R file that reproduces all results and figures using the publicly available data. The code requires reading in the data files with the user's own file path.