Data from: Live fast, die young? Day- and night-warming affects the growth, survivorship and behavior of caterpillars in the field
Abstract
While both daytime and nighttime temperatures are increasing with climate change, few studies have experimentally investigated their differential effects under field conditions. We conducted a factorial field experiment examining how day- and night-warming impact the growth, survivorship, and behavior of cabbage white caterpillars (Pieris rapae). In this experiment, the night-warming only treatment showed the highest rates of caterpillar growth, but also showed the highest mortality, the shortest maximum caterpillar lengths, the least accumulated herbivory and reduced pupation. Caterpillars in the treatments that were not warmed during the day showed daytime-shifted growth, and caterpillars in the combined day- and night-warming treatment showed strongly night-shifted herbivory. Both biotic (e.g., predation risk) and abiotic (e.g., thermal) factors could have contributed to these results. Broadly, these results show the importance of temperature-mediated behavioral changes in diel activity for caterpillar development and survival. These results also support the emerging hypotheses that periods of reduced activity may be important for successful development, that warmer nighttime conditions could limit a temporal thermal refuge for caterpillars, and that increasing temperatures could increase the likelihood of metabolic meltdown. By documenting organismal responses in the context of more complex microclimates and communities, this experiment also illustrates the value of field studies to provide insights into how ectotherms might respond to ongoing climate change.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n8pk0p35s
Description of the data and file structure
We conducted a factorial field experiment examining how day- and night-warming impact the growth, survivorship, and behavior of cabbage white caterpillars (Pieris rapae).
Files and variables
File: data.zip
Description:
1) 3771964.csv: daily max and min temperatures from the DAVIS 2 WSW EXPERIMENTAL FARM, CA US weather station
- STATION: unique station id
- NAME:name of the station
- DATE: date of observation
- TMAX: daily temperature maximum in F
- TMIN: daily temperature minimum in F
2) 3786879.csv: hourly windspeeds from the SACRAMENTO EXECUTIVE AIRPORT, CA US weather station
- STATION: unique station id
- NAME:name of the station
- DATE: date of observation
- HLY-WIND-AVGSPD:average wind speed (miles per hour)
3) combined iButton data 2022-08-02.csv: combined iButton temp logger data
- Date.Time: date and time
- Unit: temperature unit (Celsius)
- Value: temperature in C
- File: source file in "iButton data folder"
- button.id: unique temp logger id
- hour: hour on 24 hour clock
- plant.id: unique plant id
- treatment: treatment (day warming/night warming), W=warmed, C=control
- day.trt: day-warming treatment,W=warmed, C=control
- night.trt: night-warming treatment,W=warmed, C=control
4) Data Collection 2 - ALL DATA 2022-07-21.csv: primary data file
- plant.id: unique plant id
- date: date of observation
- time: time of observation
- trip: sequential trip id
- obs1: first observer name
- obs2: second observer name
- obs3: third observer name
- cat.status: "alive", "missing" or "dead"
- cat.len: caterpillar length in mm, blank cells are NA (handled by script)
- plant.status: "alive",blank cells are NA (handled by script)
- dam: estimated plant damage in % leaf area removed
- notes: text notes
5) Data Collection 2 - lookup.table 2022-07-21.csv: treatment data for each plant id. Not all locations in the grid were used for this experiment; unused grid locations are marked as EMPTY in the treatment field and have missing data. These missing data are handled as NA values by the associated script.
- plant.id:unique plant id
- treatment: (day warming/night warming, W=warmed, C=control) or EMPTY=unused grid locations
- row: field site row position
- column:field site column position
- ibutton: was an temp logger present? (Y/N)
- ibutton.id: unique logger id
- maternal.line: maternal female id
- initial.length.mm: initial neonate length in mm (measured in the field)
- cat.rep: was the lab-assigned neonate replaced during deployment to the field?(Y/N)
6) HOBO folder: HOBO temperature logger data in CSV format
- date.time:date and time
- ht.0: temperature in C at ground level
- ht.20.1: firsttemperature in C at 20 cm
- ht.20.2:second temperature in C at 20 cm
- ht.100:temperature in C at 100 cm
7) iButton data folder: individual iButton temperature logger CSV data files
- Date/Time:date and time
- Unit:temperature unit (Celsius)
- Value:temperature in C
Code/software
publication analysis 2025-03-12.Rmd: Annotated Rmarkdown script for data analysis and figure development.
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of the data:
- NOAA. 2024. Climate Data Online. https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/. (public domain)
Data was derived from the following sources:
- NOAA. 2024. Climate Data Online. https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/.(public domain)
We conducted a factorial field experiment examining how day- and night-warming impact the growth, survivorship, and behavior of cabbage white caterpillars (Pieris rapae).