Ecological consequences of phenotypic plasticity

Abstract

Phenotypic plasticity is widespread in nature, and often involves ecologically relevant behavioral, physiological, morphological and life-historical traits. As a result, plasticity alters numerous interactions between organisms and their abiotic and biotic environments. Although much work on plasticity has focused on its patterns of expression and evolution, researchers are increasingly interested in understanding how plasticity can affect ecological patterns and processes at various levels. Here, we highlight an expanding body of work that examines how plasticity can affect all levels of ecological organization through effects on demographic parameters, direct and indirect species interactions, such as competition, predation, and coexistence, and ultimately carbon and nutrient cycles. Phenotypic plasticity is widespread in nature, and often involves ecologically relevant behavioral, physiological, morphological and life-historical traits. As a result, plasticity alters numerous interactions between organisms and their abiotic and biotic environments. Although much work on plasticity has focused on its patterns of expression and evolution, researchers are increasingly interested in understanding how plasticity can affect ecological patterns and processes at various levels. Here, we highlight an expanding body of work that examines how plasticity can affect all levels of ecological organization through effects on demographic parameters, direct and indirect species interactions, such as competition, predation, and coexistence, and ultimately carbon and nutrient cycles. plasticity maintained by natural selection. when the per-capita birth rate increases with density but the per-capita death rate does not [59]. Low population sizes are therefore vulnerable to extinction because the birth rate is less than the death rate. when one species affects the density of another species by altering the density of an intermediate species (e.g. keystone predator effects, exploitative competition or trophic cascades). a specific type of evolutionary trap in which cues for habitat choice are altered and become less reliable [45]. in population genetic experiments, phenotypic variance can be partitioned by apparent causal agents: the component of phenotypic variation owing to differences in genotype (G), the component of variation attributable solely to environmental factors (E), and the component of variation that is due to differences among genotypes in their response to environmental factors (GxE). GxE demonstrates genetic variability for phenotypic plasticity within a population. However, there need not be significant genetic variation within a population for individuals to be phenotypically plastic. phenotypically plastic traits that reduce the risk of consumption [4]. phenotypically plastic traits that enhance consumptive or competitive ability. time between when an individual experiences a particular environment and when it responds to that environment [40]. In the case of plasticity that is reversible, lag time can refer to the response after which an individual experiences an inducing agent, or the response after the inducing agent is no longer present, or both. when the effects of different types of predator in combination cannot be predicted from the isolated effects of each predator [21]. Typically, investigators test for multiple predator effects of prey survivorship. population models predict that adding nutrients to a system will cause large fluctuations in population size and will lead to stochastic species extinctions [60]. the relationship between the environment and the phenotype of an individual or a group of individuals [7]. when one species affects the density of another species by altering the traits of an intermediate species (e.g. predator-induced reduction in herbivore foraging results in greater plant biomass) [61]. Behaviorally mediated indirect interactions are a TMII that involves a behavioral response.