Thermal response of freshwater ciliates: can they survive at elevated lake temperatures?

The response of the single-celled ciliates to increased temperature during global warming is critical for the structure and functioning of freshwater food webs. I conducted a meta-analysis of the literature from field studies and experimental evidence to assess the parameters characterising the thermal response of freshwater ciliates. The shape of the thermal performance curve predicts the ciliates’ survival at supraoptimal temperatures (i.e., the width of the thermal safety margin, TSM). The ciliates’ typical TSM is ~5°C. One-third of the freshwater ciliates dwelling permanently or occasionally in the pelagial cannot survive at temperatures exceeding 30°C. Likewise, cold-stenothermic species, which represent a significant fraction of euplanktonic ciliates, cannot survive by evolutionary adaptation to rapidly warming environments. The statistical analysis revealed that the ciliates’ thermal performance is affected by their planktonic lifestyle (euplanktonic versus tychoplanktonic), abil..., I scrutinised the detailed literature compilations by Foissner and colleagues published in the 1990s; these references are listed as primary sources A-E in the Dataset, see References.xlsx and README.txt) to obtain an overview of the thermal performance, resting cyst formation, and nutritional ecology of planktonic freshwater ciliates. I then searched the ISI Web of Science (All Data Bases) for updates and cross-references of Foissner’s works and further temperature records from (mainly) field studies. Search terms (in all fields) for the latter were ciliate* AND temperature NOT marine NOT ocean NOT soil NOT parasit* (1,339 hits). I followed the PRISMA guidelines in combination with EndNote 20 to filter out the records eligible for screening and analysis. Temperature data for assessing the minimum (Tmin) and maximum temperature (Tmax) of occurrence were eventually extracted from 68 publications. However, because Foissner’s works present extensive reviews, the actual number of publicatio..., , # Data from: Thermal response of freshwater ciliates: can they survive at elevated lake temperatures?

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jdfn2z3jr](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jdfn2z3jr)

The dataset results from a meta-analysis to assess the parameters characterising the thermal response of freshwater ciliates (i.e., minimum and maximum temperature tolerated, temperature niche breadth). Cyst formation, the nutritional type, and the planktonic lifestyle were considered as factors affecting the ciliates’ thermal performance.

## Description of the data and file structure

The main dataset reporting ciliate species and synonyms, taxonomic affiliation, minimum and maximum temperature and the temperature range tolerated, cysts formation, mixotrophic nutrition, food type, and planktonic lifestyle are reported in the 'Dataset_v3.xlsx' file. This is the main document.

Taxonomic affiliation (i.e., order) followed Adl et al. (2019, reference [65]J, the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, and Lynn (2008; ref...