High Capacity for Physiological Plasticity Occurs at a Slow Rate in Ectotherms.

ABSTRACT: 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 c

SUBMITTER: Burton T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11744337 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature