Data for: Multi-scale relationships in thermal limits within and between two cold-water frog species uncover different trends in physiological vulnerability

Critical thermal limits represent an important component of an organism’s capacity to cope with future temperature changes. Understanding the drivers of variation in these traits may uncover patterns in physiological vulnerability to climate change. Local temperature extremes have emerged as a major driver of thermal limits, although their effects can be mediated by the exploitation of fine-scale spatial variation in temperature through behavioral thermoregulation.
Here, we investigated thermal limits along elevation gradients within and between two cold-water frog species (Ascaphus spp.), one with a coastal distribution (A. truei) and the other with a continental range (A. montanus). We quantified thermal limits for over 700 tadpoles, representing multiple populations from each species. We combined local temporal and fine-scale spatial temperature data to quantify local thermal landscapes (i.e., thermalscapes), including the opportunity for behavioral thermoregulation.
Lower thermal l...