Data from: Climatic predictors of temperature performance curve parameters in ectotherms imply complex responses to climate change

Determining organismal responses to climate change is one of
biology's greatest challenges. Recent forecasts for future climates
emphasize altered temperature variation and precipitation, but most
studies of animals have largely focussed on forecasting the outcome of
changes in mean temperature. Theory suggests that extreme thermal
variation and precipitation will influence species performance, and hence
affect their response to changes in climate. Using an
information-theoretic approach, we show that in squamate ectotherms
(mostly lizards and snakes), two fitness-influencing components of
performance, the critical thermal maximum and the thermal optimum, are
more closely related to temperature variation and to precipitation,
respectively, than either is to mean thermal conditions. By contrast,
critical thermal minimum is related to mean annual temperature. Our
results suggest that temperature variation and precipitation regimes have
had a strong influence on the evolution of ectotherm performance, so that
forecasts for animal responses to climate change will have to incorporate
these factors, and not only changes in average temperature.