Division of Environmental Biology, National Science Foundation, Alexandria, VA, 22230.
Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611.
Evolution. 2021 Jul;75(7):1650-1664. doi: 10.1111/evo.14226. Epub 2021 Apr 18.
Habitat construction and phenotypic plasticity are alternative responses to variable environments. We explored evolution along an environmental gradient of habitat construction alone and in combination with phenotypic plasticity using individual-based simulations that manipulated the fitness benefit of construction and whether construction maintained or eliminated that gradient. Construction was favored when its benefits were more likely to flow to the immediate offspring of the constructing individuals. Habitat construction and phenotypic plasticity traded off against each other or plasticity was selected against, depending on how the optimum environment varied and with the fitness value of construction. When selection favored differences in the amount of construction along the environmental gradient, genetic differentiation for habitat construction increased as the fitness value of construction increased. The degree to which each adaptive response was likely to evolve also depended on the precise ordering of life history events. Adaptive habitat construction does not always occur and may be selected against.
生境构建和表型可塑性是对可变环境的两种替代响应。我们使用基于个体的模拟方法，沿着仅进行生境构建的环境梯度以及与表型可塑性相结合的环境梯度，探索了进化过程，这些模拟方法操纵了构建的适应性收益，以及构建是维持还是消除了这种梯度。当构建的收益更有可能流向构建个体的直接后代时，构建就会受到青睐。生境构建和表型可塑性相互权衡，或者可塑性被选择淘汰，这取决于最优环境如何变化以及构建的适应值。当选择有利于环境梯度上构建量的差异时，随着构建的适应值增加，生境构建的遗传分化也会增加。每个适应性反应可能进化的程度还取决于生命史事件的确切顺序。适应性生境构建并不总是发生，并且可能会被选择淘汰。
