Physiological and environmental data from: Are you ready for the heat? Plasticity vs adaptation of heat tolerance in three-spined stickleback

Heat waves constitute a challenge for aquatic ectotherms. However, the thermal tolerance of animals and their individual phenotypic plasticity to respond to heat waves may be influenced by thermal history. We tested these hypotheses by comparing the upper thermal tolerance and the individual capacities of three-spined sticklebacks from populations with different thermal histories to respond to heat waves. Two populations originated from thermally polluted nuclear power plant (NPP) habitats, while four locations represented geographically adjacent control areas. To disentangle the genetic adaptation from the phenotypic plastic response, we measured the individual upper thermal tolerance and the responses at molecular level in common garden conditions before and after a laboratory-mimicked heat wave. We found that the sticklebacks exhibit considerable phenotypic plasticity in thermal tolerance since the heat wave increased fish upper thermal tolerance significantly. The individual plastic...