Data from: Heat tolerance variation reveals vulnerability of tropical herbivore-parasitoid interactions to climate change

Assessing the heat tolerance (CTmax) of organisms is central to understand
the impact of climate change on biodiversity. While both environment and
evolutionary history affect CTmax, it is unclear how these factors and
their interplay influence ecological interactions, communities, and
ecosystems under climate change. We collected and reared caterpillars and
parasitoids from canopy and ground layers in different seasons in a
tropical rainforest. We tested the CTmax and Thermal Safety Margins (TSM)
of these food webs with implications for how species interactions could
shift under climate change. We identified strong influence of phylogeny in
herbivore-parasitoid community heat tolerance. The TSM of all insects were
narrower in the canopy and parasitoids had lower heat tolerance compared
to their hosts. Our CTmax-based simulation showed higher
herbivore-parasitoid food web instability under climate change than
previously assumed, highlighting the vulnerability of parasitoids and
related herbivore control in tropical rainforests, particularly in the
forest canopy.