We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Environmental stress and the costs of whole-organism phenotypic plasticity in tadpoles.
- Authors
STEINER, U. K.; VAN BUSKIRK, J.
- Abstract
Costs of phenotypic plasticity are important for the evolution of plasticity because they prevent organisms from shaping themselves at will to match heterogeneous environments. These costs occur when plastic genotypes have relatively low fitness regardless of the trait value expressed. We report two experiments in which we measured selection on predator-induced plasticity in the behaviour and external morphology of frog tadpoles ( Rana temporaria). We assessed costs under stressful and benign conditions, measured fitness as larval growth rate or competitive ability and focused analysis on aggregate measures of whole-organism plasticity. There was little convincing evidence for a cost of phenotypic plasticity in our experiments, and costs of canalization were nearly as frequent as costs of plasticity. Neither the magnitude of the cost nor the variation around the estimate (detectability) was sensitive to environmental stress.
- Subjects
RANA temporaria; TADPOLES; LARVAE; PHENOTYPES; ENVIRONMENTAL engineering; GENETIC polymorphisms; PREDATORY animals; ANIMAL morphology
- Publication
Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2008, Vol 21, Issue 1, p97
- ISSN
1010-061X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1420-9101.2007.01463.x