Data from: Microclimatic changes caused by plant invasions and warming: uncovering thermal costs and benefits to a tortoise

This dataset contains a) the righting speed data for Homopus areolatus that was used to build thermal performance curves for the species and b) the hourly operative temperature data logged in the field with operative temperature models for one year in both native and invaded areas.  

a) Righting speed

Righting speed for Homopus areolatus tortoises. The data were measured in laboratory trials performed under six temperatures (from 10 °C to 35 °C at 5 °C intervals) with 66 individuals collected from two field sites and in two seasons. The individuals were placed in separate terraria in a temperature-controlled room and were left to equilibrate to the target temperature for one hour before being overturned. We scanned the video footage to estimate the individuals’ righting speed using the motion analysis software Kinovea. The righting speed (s-1) corresponded to the time elapsed between the start and the end of the successful righting attempt. The dataset includes the righting speed values obtained for each individual for all trial repetitions under each treatment temperature. For each tortoise ID, the body temperature at the start of the trial, the weight and the shell length, width and height are also shown.

b) Operative temperature

Hourly operative temperature (degrees Celsius) logged for one year in ground, underground and burrow microsites, as well as in the air, across four field sites in both native and invaded areas (five quadrats each). Ground temperature was measured using operative temperature models (OTM) of tortoises with iButtons inside, placed in a range of microsites that differed in solar exposure. Burrow temperature was also measured with OTMs, whereas underground and air temperature were measured with iButtons. The dataset includes daytime operative temperature data for one year from a total of 167 loggers across the four field sites in both native and invaded areas.