Burton Tim, Einum Sigurd
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Trondheim, Norway.
Department of Biology, Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Ecol Lett. 2025 Jan;28(1):e70046. doi: 10.1111/ele.70046.
Phenotypic plasticity enables organisms to express a phenotype that is optimal in their current environment. The ability of organisms to obtain the optimum phenotype is determined by their (i) capacity for plasticity, which facilitates phenotypic adjustment corresponding to the amplitude of environmental change but also their (ii) rate of plasticity, because this determines if the expressed phenotype lags behind changes in the optimum. How the rate of- and capacity for plasticity have co-evolved will thus be critical for the resilience of organisms under different patterns of environmental change. To evaluate the direction of the evolved relationship between plasticity rate and capacity, we reanalysed experiments documenting the time course of thermal tolerance acclimation to temperature change across species of ectothermic animals. We found that the rate and capacity with which thermal tolerance responds plastically to temperature change are negatively correlated, a pattern inconsistent with current theory regarding the evolution of phenotypic plasticity.
表型可塑性使生物体能够表达出在当前环境中最优的表型。生物体获得最优表型的能力取决于它们的：（i）可塑性能力，这有助于根据环境变化幅度进行表型调整；以及（ii）可塑性速率，因为这决定了所表达的表型是否滞后于最优表型的变化。因此，可塑性速率和能力如何共同进化对于生物体在不同环境变化模式下的恢复力至关重要。为了评估可塑性速率和能力之间进化关系的方向，我们重新分析了记录外温动物物种对温度变化的热耐受性适应时间进程的实验。我们发现，热耐受性对温度变化的可塑性响应速率和能力呈负相关，这一模式与当前关于表型可塑性进化的理论不一致。
