Data for: Marine mussel respiration under fluctuating temperatures

The impact of rising temperatures on biological systems is
well-documented, particularly on coastal shores characterized by
fluctuating temperatures. To study the effects of fluctuating temperatures
on physiological performance, experiments often employ treatments that
alternate between “blocks” of time exposed to minimum versus maximum
temperatures. To test the efficacy of these approaches, we collected water
temperatures from a mussel bed to drive 12-h field treatments and compared
them to block treatments across different seasons. Our results showed that
respiration rates for mussels under spring and fall temperatures were
higher in the block compared to the field treatments. In contrast, mussels
tested under summer temperatures showed higher rates under field versus
block treatments. When simulating winter temperatures, rates in field and
block treatments were similar. The thermal performance curves generated
from the field and block data produced significantly different estimates
of thermal optima, indicating a mismatch between lab-based temperature
treatments and natural thermal regimes. The potential effects on
physiological performance underscore the importance of using
high-resolution temperature data and the need to ensure that the seasonal
conditions being simulated in lab experiments match those being studied in
the field.