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The role of phenotypic plasticity in the establishment of range margins

It has been argued that adaptive phenotypic plasticity may facilitate range expansions over spatially and temporally variable environments. However, plasticity may induce fitness costs. This may hinder the evolution of plasticity. Earlier modelling studies examined the role of plasticity during rang...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Eriksson, Martin, Rafajlović, Marina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8784930/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35067091
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0012
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author Eriksson, Martin
Rafajlović, Marina
author_facet Eriksson, Martin
Rafajlović, Marina
author_sort Eriksson, Martin
collection PubMed
description It has been argued that adaptive phenotypic plasticity may facilitate range expansions over spatially and temporally variable environments. However, plasticity may induce fitness costs. This may hinder the evolution of plasticity. Earlier modelling studies examined the role of plasticity during range expansions of populations with fixed genetic variance. However, genetic variance evolves in natural populations. This may critically alter model outcomes. We ask: how does the capacity for plasticity in populations with evolving genetic variance alter range margins that populations without the capacity for plasticity are expected to attain? We answered this question using computer simulations and analytical approximations. We found a critical plasticity cost above which the capacity for plasticity has no impact on the expected range of the population. Below the critical cost, by contrast, plasticity facilitates range expansion, extending the range in comparison to that expected for populations without plasticity. We further found that populations may evolve plasticity to buffer temporal environmental fluctuations, but only when the plasticity cost is below the critical cost. Thus, the cost of plasticity is a key factor involved in range expansions of populations with the potential to express plastic response in the adaptive trait. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Species' ranges in the face of changing environments (part I)’.
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spelling pubmed-87849302022-02-03 The role of phenotypic plasticity in the establishment of range margins Eriksson, Martin Rafajlović, Marina Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci Articles It has been argued that adaptive phenotypic plasticity may facilitate range expansions over spatially and temporally variable environments. However, plasticity may induce fitness costs. This may hinder the evolution of plasticity. Earlier modelling studies examined the role of plasticity during range expansions of populations with fixed genetic variance. However, genetic variance evolves in natural populations. This may critically alter model outcomes. We ask: how does the capacity for plasticity in populations with evolving genetic variance alter range margins that populations without the capacity for plasticity are expected to attain? We answered this question using computer simulations and analytical approximations. We found a critical plasticity cost above which the capacity for plasticity has no impact on the expected range of the population. Below the critical cost, by contrast, plasticity facilitates range expansion, extending the range in comparison to that expected for populations without plasticity. We further found that populations may evolve plasticity to buffer temporal environmental fluctuations, but only when the plasticity cost is below the critical cost. Thus, the cost of plasticity is a key factor involved in range expansions of populations with the potential to express plastic response in the adaptive trait. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Species' ranges in the face of changing environments (part I)’. The Royal Society 2022-03-14 2022-01-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8784930/ /pubmed/35067091 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0012 Text en © 2022 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Articles
Eriksson, Martin
Rafajlović, Marina
The role of phenotypic plasticity in the establishment of range margins
title The role of phenotypic plasticity in the establishment of range margins
title_full The role of phenotypic plasticity in the establishment of range margins
title_fullStr The role of phenotypic plasticity in the establishment of range margins
title_full_unstemmed The role of phenotypic plasticity in the establishment of range margins
title_short The role of phenotypic plasticity in the establishment of range margins
title_sort role of phenotypic plasticity in the establishment of range margins
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8784930/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35067091
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0012
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