GlobTherm, a global database on thermal tolerances for aquatic and terrestrial organisms

How climate affects species distributions is a longstanding question receiving renewed interest owing to the need to predict the impacts of global warming on biodiversity. Is climate change forcing species to live near their critical thermal limits? Are these limits likely to change through natural selection? These and other important questions can be addressed with models relating geographical distributions of species with climate data, but inferences made with these models are highly contingent on non-climatic factors such as biotic interactions. Improved understanding of climate change effects on species will require extensive analysis of thermal physiological traits, but such data are both scarce and scattered. To overcome current limitations, we created the GlobTherm database. The database contains experimentally derived species’ thermal tolerance data currently comprising over 2,000 species of terrestrial, freshwater, intertidal and marine multicellular algae, plants, fungi, and animals. The GlobTherm database will be maintained and curated by iDiv with the aim to keep expanding it, and enable further investigations on the effects of climate on the distribution of life on Earth. Design Type(s) data integration objective • database creation objective Measurement Type(s) heat tolerance • cold tolerance • Acclimatization Technology Type(s) data item extraction from journal article Factor Type(s) geographic location • biome • Species Sample Characteristic(s) Africa • Antarctica • Asia • Europe • North America • Oceania • South America • aquatic biome • terrestrial biome Design Type(s) data integration objective • database creation objective Measurement Type(s) heat tolerance • cold tolerance • Acclimatization Technology Type(s) data item extraction from journal article Factor Type(s) geographic location • biome • Species Sample Characteristic(s) Africa • Antarctica • Asia • Europe • North America • Oceania • South America • aquatic biome • terrestrial biome Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data (ISA-Tab format)

• Publication year

  2018

• Venue

  Scientific Data

• Publication date

  2018-03-13

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1038/sdata.2018.22PMID 29533392PMCID 5848787
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Data quality problems undermine analyses of endotherm upper critical temperatures

  2017cited by this paper
• Global patterns of thermal tolerances and vulnerability of endotherms to climate change remain robust irrespective of varying data suitability criteria

  2017cited by this paper
• Comment on an analysis of endotherm thermal tolerances: systematic errors in data compilation undermine its credibility

  2017cited by this paper
• Languages Are Still a Major Barrier to Global Science

  2016cited by this paper
• Global variation in thermal physiology of birds and mammals: evidence for phylogenetic niche conservatism only in the tropics

  2015cited by this paper
• Taxonomic Information from Around the Web

  2015cited by this paper
• Concluding Remarks

  2015cited by this paper
• FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication.

  2014cited by this paper
• Heat freezes niche evolution.

  2013cited by this paper
• Life on a tropical planet: niche conservatism and the global diversity gradient

  2013cited by this paper
• Thermal tolerance and the global redistribution of animals

  2012cited by this paper
• Biodiversity in water and on land.

  2012cited by this paper
• HOW MANY SPECIES OF ALGAE ARE THERE?

  2012cited by this paper
• Predicting total global species richness using rates of species description and estimates of taxonomic effort.

  2012cited by this paper
• Physiological Correlates of Geographic Range in Animals

  2011cited by this paper
• Climatic Predictors of Temperature Performance Curve Parameters in Ectotherms Imply Complex Responses to Climate Change

  2011cited by this paper
• Climatic niche conservatism and the evolutionary dynamics in species range boundaries: global congruence across mammals and amphibians

  2011cited by this paper
• How many species of flowering plants are there?

  2010cited by this paper
• Niche conservatism as an emerging principle in ecology and conservation biology.

  2010cited by this paper
• How many species of flowering plants are there?

  2010cited by this paper
• What determines a species' geographical range? Thermal biology and latitudinal range size relationships in European diving beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae).

  2010cited by this paper
• Macrophysiology: A Conceptual Reunification

  2009cited by this paper
• Grinnellian and Eltonian niches and geographic distributions of species.

  2007cited by this paper
• Ecology's oldest pattern?

  2001cited by this paper
• On the relationship between niche and distribution

  2000cited by this paper

• Trait-based vulnerability and tolerance thresholds of tropical mollusks in light of projected increases in climate-change stressors.

  2026cites this paper
• The potential role of life cycle bottlenecks in shaping the marine latitudinal diversity gradient.

  2026cites this paper
• Moving beyond mean thermal death times to assess organismal responses to stressful temperatures

  2026cites this paper
• Added value of a priori bias correction for dynamical downscaling - A case study of Coastal British Columbia

  2026cites this paper
• Heat but Not Cold Tolerance Is Phylogenetically Constrained in Greenlandic Terrestrial Arthropods Under Future Global Warming

  2026cites this paper
• Intensive post‐fire management drives ecosystem degradation but does not prevent tree regeneration

  2026cites this paper
• Effects of microclimate variation on insect persistence under global change

  2025cites this paper
• Harnessing artificial intelligence to fill global shortfalls in biodiversity knowledge

  2025cites this paper
• Bumble Bee Probability of Occurrence Responds to Interactions Between Local and Landscape Land Use, Climatic Niche Properties and Climate Change

  2025cites this paper
• Microclimate variability impacts the coexistence of highland and lowland ectotherms

  2025influential citation
• The role of life stage and season in critical thermal limits of carrion beetles.

  2025cites this paper
• Warm‐Loving Species Perform Well Under Limiting Resources: Trait Combinations for Future Climate

  2025cites this paper
• Downstream Temperature Effects of Boreal Forest Clearcutting Vary With Riparian Buffer Width

  2025cites this paper
• The ultimate challenge to climate change: Endurance of a thermophilic reptile to the harsh temperatures on an extremely hot island

  2025cites this paper
• A Framework for Modelling Thermal Load Sensitivity Across Life

  2025influential citation
• Chronic Heat Tolerance Reveals Overestimated Thermal Safety Margins and Increased Vulnerability in Marine Fish Populations.

  2025cites this paper
• Differential thermal tolerances in geographically distinct lineages of a dominant reef building alga

  2025cites this paper
• Global dataset for realized thermal and aridity niche limits for terrestrial vertebrates

  2025cites this paper
• Vulnerability of Gulf Ribbed Mussels to Marsh Surface Maximum Temperatures

  2025influential citation
• Thermal tolerance plasticity under stress: the impact of a marine heatwave and bleaching in the various life stages of Berghia stephanieae

  2025cites this paper
• Heat tolerance in tropical moths varies with micro-climate, life stage and larval feeding strategy.

  2025cites this paper
• TadpoleTraits: A Global Database on Morphological Traits of Tadpoles of Anura

  2025cites this paper
• Warmer environments harbor greater thermal trait diversity in moth assemblages

  2025cites this paper
• Seagrasses are most vulnerable to marine heatwaves in tropical zones: local‐scale and broad climatic zone variation in thermal tolerances

  2025cites this paper
• Application of an ecologically relevant thermal tolerance metric reveals "heat weakening" in a salmonid.

  2025cites this paper
• Population Genomics Reveals Local Adaptation Related to Temperature Variation in Two Stream Frog Species: Implications for Vulnerability to Climate Warming

  2025cites this paper
• Documenting climate-driven changes in Swiss macroinvertebrate communities with a ‘temperature index’: An evaluation of different sources of thermal preference data

  2025cites this paper
• AmphiTherm: a comprehensive database of amphibian thermal tolerance and preference

  2025cites this paper
• A database of biological thermal performances

  2025cites this paper
• Modelling Species Distribution at the Boundaries of the Earth's Climate

  2025cites this paper
• Before the brink: considering sublethal impacts of climate change on stingless bee flight performance.

  2025cites this paper
• Global thermal tolerance compilation for freshwater invertebrates and fish

  2025cites this paper
• On the correlated evolution of ecological lifestyle and thermal tolerance.

  2025cites this paper
• Evolutionary and environmental determinants of heat tolerance and acclimation capacity in herpetofauna

  2025cites this paper
• Conservation planning for environmental water to climate refugia in the manageable Murray-Darling Basin.

  2025cites this paper
• A comprehensive understanding of thermal tolerance in Percocypris pingi (Tchang, 1930) under different acclimation temperatures supported by behavioral assessments.

  2025cites this paper
• Variation in Ectotherm Thermal Tolerances With Elevation and Temperature Across Biological Scales

  2025cites this paper
• Dispersal Ability Reduces Thermal Specialization and Prevents Climate‐Driven Extinctions in a Neotropical Rainforest

  2025cites this paper
• Differences in climate change impacts on reptile embryos and adults.

  2025cites this paper
• Sub-seasonal forecasting of thermal stress for Swiss river fishes during heatwaves

  2025cites this paper
• Addressing issues of experimental design, ecological realism and local adaptation for applications of ectotherm upper thermal limits

  2025cites this paper
• Advances and shortfalls in knowledge of Antarctic terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity.

  2025cites this paper
• Ontogeny shapes vulnerability to climate change underground: Larvae of a subterranean beetle are more sensitive to temperature increase than adults

  2025cites this paper
• High thermal variation in maximum temperatures invert Brett's heat‐invariant rule at fine spatial scales

  2025influential citation
• Tracking community change via network coherence

  2025cites this paper
• Thermal Traits of Anurans Database for the Southeastern United States (TRAD): A Database of Thermal Trait Values for 40 Anuran Species

  2024cites this paper
• Physiological thermal niches, elevational ranges and thermal stress in dendrobatid frogs: An integrated approach

  2024cites this paper
• Searching for variables representing the response to cold stress in mediterranean Geotrupinae reveals an association between heat and cold tolerances.

  2024cites this paper
• Warming underpins community turnover in temperate freshwater and terrestrial communities

  2024cites this paper
• Beyond a single temperature threshold: Applying a cumulative thermal stress framework to plant heat tolerance.

  2024cites this paper
• Bringing traits back into the equation: A roadmap to understand species redistribution

  2024cites this paper
• Does heat tolerance actually predict animals' geographic thermal limits?

  2024cites this paper
• Assessing the global vulnerability of dryland birds to heatwaves

  2024cites this paper
• Coevolution between heat and cold tolerance in endotherms.

  2024cites this paper
• Heat tolerance in Drosophila melanogaster is influenced by oxygen conditions and mutations in cell size control pathways

  2024cites this paper
• Acclimation Capacity to Global Warming of Amphibians and Freshwater Fishes: Drivers, Patterns, and Data Limitations

  2024cites this paper
• Systematic approaches to assessing high temperature limits to fertility in animals.

  2024cites this paper
• Large‐scale deviations between realized and fundamental thermal niches in global seaweed distributions

  2024cites this paper
• A multicontinental dataset of butterfly thermal physiological traits

  2024cites this paper
• Predicting the Effects of Climate Change on the Fertility of Aquatic Animals Using a Meta‐Analytic Approach

  2024cites this paper
• The predictability of fluctuating environments shapes the thermal tolerance of marine ectotherms and compensates narrow safety margins

  2024cites this paper
• Climate change may reveal currently unavailable parts of species’ ecological niches

  2024cites this paper
• Impact of Climate Change on Biodiversity and Implications for Nature-Based Solutions

  2024cites this paper
• Physiological and morphological traits affect contemporary range expansion and implications for species distribution modelling in an amphibian species.

  2024cites this paper
• The heat is on: impact of heat waves on critical thermal maxima in larvae and adults of solitary bee Osmia bicornis (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae)

  2024cites this paper
• Global analysis of the influence of environmental variables to explain ecological niches and realized thermal niche boundaries of sea snakes

  2024influential citation
• Heat-absorbing sexual coloration co-adapts with increased heat tolerance in dragonflies

  2024cites this paper
• A cautionary message on combining physiological thermal limits with macroclimatic data to predict species distribution

  2024cites this paper
• Large potential impacts of marine heatwaves on ecosystem functioning

  2024cites this paper
• The lack of plasticity and interspecific variability in thermal limits produce a highly heat-tolerant tropical host-parasitoid system.

  2024cites this paper
• In Hot Water: Current Thermal Threshold Methods Unlikely to Predict Invasive Species Shifts in NW Atlantic.

  2024cites this paper
• Sustainable urban planning needs stronger interdisciplinarity and better co‐designing: How ecologists and climatologists can fully leverage climate monitoring data

  2024cites this paper
• Thermal tolerance for the tropical clawed frog, Xenopus tropicalis with comments on comparative methods for amphibian studies.

  2024cites this paper
• A 485-million-year history of Earth’s surface temperature

  2024cites this paper
• Responses of the mud snail Cipangopaludina cathayensis to thermal stress: Insights from metabolism, oxidative stress damage, and hepatopancreas transcriptional modulation.

  2024cites this paper
• Temporal and spatial variability in population traits of an intertidal fucoid reveals local-scale climatic refugia.

  2023cites this paper
• Relatively large wings facilitate life at higher elevations among Nearctic dragonflies.

  2023cites this paper
• Heat-avoidance behavior associates with thermal sensitivity rather than tolerance in aphid assemblages.

  2023cites this paper
• Predicting climate change impacts on poikilotherms using physiologically guided species abundance models

  2023cites this paper
• Parasitism does not reduce thermal limits in the intermediate host of a bopyrid isopod

  2023cites this paper
• Climate drives global functional trait variation in lizards

  2023cites this paper
• A three-step approach for co-locating nature-based solutions within offshore wind farms

  2023cites this paper
• Future temperature extremes threaten land vertebrates

  2023cites this paper
• Linking critical thermal maximum to mortality from thermal stress in a cold-water frog

  2023cites this paper
• Toxicokinetic–Toxicodynamic Model to Assess Thermal Stress

  2023cites this paper
• Incorporating physiology into species distribution models Incorporating physiology into species distribution models moderates the projected impact of warming on Mediterranean moderates the projected impact of warming on Mediterranean marine species marine species

  2023cites this paper
• Novel physiological data needed for progress in global change ecology

  2023cites this paper
• Impact of body size on critical thermal maxima in female solitary desert bees

  2023cites this paper
• Physiological cold tolerance evolves faster than climatic niches in plants

  2023cites this paper
• The role of thermal tolerance in determining elevational distributions of four arthropod taxa in mountain ranges of southern Asia.

  2023cites this paper
• Bumblebee occupancy responds to complex interactions between local and landscape land use, climatic niche properties and climate change

  2023cites this paper
• Spatially variable effects of streamflow on water temperature and thermal sensitivity within a salmon‐bearing watershed in interior British Columbia, Canada

  2023cites this paper
• Sample size assessments for thermal physiology studies: An R package and R Shiny application

  2023cites this paper
• Temperate species underfill their tropical thermal potentials on land

  2023cites this paper
• Biophysical models accurately characterize the thermal energetics of a small invasive passerine bird

  2023cites this paper
• Development of an LCA characterization factor to account UHI local effect on terrestrial ecosystems damage category: Evaluation of European Bombus and Onthophagus genera heat-stress mortality.

  2023cites this paper
• Long‐term forecast of thermal mortality with climate warming in riverine amphipods

  2023cites this paper
• Role of climatic variability in shaping intraspecific variation of thermal tolerance in Mediterranean water beetles

  2023cites this paper
• Paleoenvironmental implications of Permo-Triassic geographic shift in oxygen stable isotope (δ18Op) from tetrapod bone in the South African Karoo Basin

  2023cites this paper
• A simple method to account for thermal boundary layers during the estimation of CTmax in small ectotherms.

  2023cites this paper