Determining organisms’ responses to novel temperatures is relevant from ecological, evolutionary, and conservation perspectives. Here, we have validated designs and included biological examples for three affordable devices to estimate thermal responses of ectotherms: (1) a water bath that can be programmed to increase temperatures to estimate an organismal critical thermal maximum (CT_max), (2) a miniature portable refrigerator to estimate an organism's critical thermal minimum (CT_min), and (3) inexpensive growth chambers that maintain constant temperatures or simulate dynamic environmental temperature patterns. We tested the reliability of the CT_max device at temperature increase rates of 1° and 2°C/min. Observed temperatures deviated 0.01°C and 0.02°C from target temperatures, respectively. The CT_min device easily attained target temperatures via manipulation of the input voltage. The maximum deviation from target temperatures in environmental chambers programmed to maintain constant temperatures between 10°C and 30°C was 0.8°C. Environmental chambers programmed to simulate temperature profiles of tropical rain and montane forests deviated from target temperatures by a maximum of −0.5°C to 0.9°C. Examples of applications show that (1) tropical insects at high elevations are less tolerant to high temperatures than insects in lowland forests, (2) nocturnal ants display lower CT_max and CT_min than diurnal ant species, and (3) experiments in growth chambers show high mortality of high‐elevation insect species when exposed to temperatures that typify lowland forests, and high mortality of lowland insect species when exposed to temperatures that typify high elevations. The devices described in this study can be mass‐produced inexpensively and are currently being used in laboratories in the United States, Mexico, and Costa Rica. The main goal of this project is to encourage the construction of affordable devices and the use of standardized methodologies to create a global network of researchers studying thermal responses in diverse taxa and geographic locations.

中文翻译：

---

负担得起的气候变化实验室：在预计的全球变暖下估算外热临界速率的设备

从生态学，进化论和保护学的观点来看，确定生物体对新温度的反应是重要的。在这里，我们已经验证了设计并包括了三种可负担得起的设备的生物学示例，这些设备可用来估计外热的热响应：（1）可通过编程增加温度的水浴来估计生物临界热最大值（CT _max），（2）a微型便携式冰箱，用于估计生物体的临界最低热量（CT _min），以及（3）廉价的生长室，该生长室保持恒定的温度或模拟动态的环境温度模式。我们测试了CT _max的可靠性设备以1°C和2°C / min的升温速度运行。观测温度分别偏离目标温度0.01°C和0.02°C。通过控制输入电压，CT _min设备可以轻松达到目标温度。已编程为将温度保持在10°C和30°C之间的恒定环境室中与目标温度的最大偏差为0.8°C。对环境箱进行编程，以模拟与目标温度相差最大-0.5°C至0.9°C的热带雨林和山地森林的温度曲线。应用实例表明：（1）高海拔的热带昆虫比低地森林的昆虫对高温的耐受性低；（2）夜蚁显示的CT _max和CT _min较低。（3）在生长室进行的实验表明，高海拔昆虫物种在暴露于低地森林的典型温度下具有较高的死亡率，而低地昆虫物种在暴露于高海拔的典型温度下具有较高的死亡率。这项研究中描述的设备可以廉价地大量生产，目前正在美国，墨西哥和哥斯达黎加的实验室中使用。该项目的主要目标是鼓励人们建造负担得起的设备，并使用标准化的方法来创建一个全球研究人员网络，研究在不同分类单元和地理位置的热响应。