Best of both worlds: Acclimation to fluctuating environments confers advantages and minimizes costs of constant environments

Thermal acclimation is often considered critical in organismal responses to novel thermal conditions. Our understanding of the physiological implications of acclimation is largely derived from lab studies with simplified thermal regimes that fail to account for any variation that animals would experience naturally (i.e. diel variation). As such, constant temperature acclimation experiments may produce a flawed understanding of acclimation in the wild.
To fill this gap, we acclimated lizards (Amphibolurus muricatus) under three thermal regimes (Hot Constant, Cold Constant and Alternating) and compared their physiological responses (Metabolic Rate, Sprint Speed, Thermal Preferences and Thermal Limits).

We found that animals maintained constantly at hot temperatures (preferred temperature, 35°C) gained sprint performance increases, not seen in those maintained constantly at cold temperatures (20°C), yet suffered costs to growth (in younger animals) and maintenance (mass loss in older a..., Data was collected using standard methods of closed system respirometry, sprint performance, thermal preferences and limits. 
Processed in Kinovea (sprint), Warthog (SMR), Excel (Thermal Preferences).  Data wrangling and analysis in R., , # Best of both worlds: Acclimation to fluctuating environments confers advantages and minimizes costs of constant environments

Dataset contains information on lizards that underwent three acclimation treatments (Hot, cold, fluctuating) and presents phenotyping data for metabolic rate and sprint performance across five temperatures as well as thermal preferences and behavioural thermal limits. Animals were found to shift phenotypes in response to treatment with animals under fluctuating regimes having the benefits of accessing hotter temperatures with lower putative costs.

The attached R files contain code to perform the analysis presented in the manuscript.

## Description of the data and file structure

Methodological Information

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\* Methods of data collection/generation: see manuscript for details

Description of the data and file structure

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File Summary

\* 4 Files in total, 3 .csv files and 1 RMD.

\- best_of_both_worlds_...