The critical thermal maximum: history and critique

Abstract

We reviewed 725 papers published since Cowles and Bogert's paper on thermal tolerance (R.B. Cowles and C.M. Bogert. 1944. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 83: 261–296) to create a data base of studies that used critical thermal maximum or lethal-temperature methods. We found data from 388 of these papers to provide a historical and taxonomic review of various methodologies used in measuring tolerance of high temperature. We conducted this literature review of previous studies to (i) describe the history of the study of thermal tolerance and show the chronological trends in the use of lethal temperature and critical thermal maximum methods, (ii) illustrate the diversity of taxa used in thermal-tolerance studies, (iii) summarize the diversity of protocols (i.e., end points, heating rates, acclimations, etc.) used for determining thermal tolerance, (iv) provide physiological reasons why the onset of spasms is more meaningful biologically than the loss of righting response, and (v) discuss the difficulties in using data from studies in which widely divergent methods were used and the importance of obtaining comparative thermal-tolerance data for comparative physiology. The adoption of the onset of spasms as a standard end point would allow for valid comparisons of data from different studies and among taxa, an important consideration for current investigations of comparative physiology that use the comparative phylogenetic method.