An Affordable and Customizable Arduino-based Thermo-controller for Thermal Ecology Experiments

Abstract

Insight into organismal physiology, evolutionary ecology, and climate change susceptibility all rely on high-quality and easily-obtainable thermal tolerance information. A variety of methods exist for measuring thermal tolerance, and thermal tolerance metrics are highly influenced by small differences in methodology. To promote consistency, reproducibility, and accessibility, we present here instructions for building an Arduino-based thermo-controller for raising, lowering, and holding temperature in a variety of experimental conditions. The setup is affordable (~$100), highly customizable, and highly consistent in the outcomes it produces. We include data from real thermal trials demonstrating the ability of the system to meet, hold, and reproduce desired ramping rates and hold temperatures.