Data from: Warm acclimation reduces the sensitivity of Drosophila species to heat stress at ecologically relevant scales

Thermal acclimation is presumed to affect heat tolerance, though it is
unclear how this should impact populations under realistic natural
conditions. In this study, we quantified how thermal acclimation affect
heat tolerance landscapes in Drosophila and, as a consequence, their
predicted mortality in the field based on simulations with the dynamic
landscape. We measured the thermal tolerance of four Drosophila species
(D. repleta, D. hydei, D. simulans, and D. virilis) acclimated to five
constant temperatures along a gradient. We then combined this information
with field temperatures to construct dynamic tolerance landscapes for
these species and examine how survival varies over the course of a year.
Our analyses reveal the effect of acclimation on an ecologically relevant
scale, specifically through the study of cumulative mortality under
natural thermal regimes. We show that different species exhibit a common
strategy in response to thermal challenges during acclimation, resulting
in a trade-off between increasing critical temperature (CTmax) and thermal
sensitivity (z). Furthermore, we show that while acclimation presents a
relatively modest improvement in thermal tolerance during short ramping
laboratory trials, this response becomes stronger when tolerance estimates
are translated into ecologically relevant timescales, such as annual
survival. Our results indicate that acclimation to warm conditions can
substantially increase their thermal tolerance, contradicting the idea
that thermal acclimation in ectotherms has only a minor effect. Our work
applies novel approaches to studying thermal tolerance and aims to
highlight the role of acclimation in ameliorating the impact of global
warming.