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Digest: Changing environment often easier than changing phenotype
Author(s) -
Ernst Ulrich R.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/evo.14289
Subject(s) - phenotypic plasticity , biology , plasticity , habitat , environmental change , evolutionary biology , ecology , climate change , physics , thermodynamics
What strategy should an individual follow when faced with a suboptimal environment: change the environment, adapt to the environment, or both? Scheiner et al. used an individual‐based model to address the interaction of plasticity and habitat construction with different life histories in a heterogeneous environment. In most situations, habitat construction was superior to either plasticity or a mixed strategy, but not always, and specific conditions may favor plasticity.