Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The relative advantages of plasticity and fixity in different environments: when is it good for a plant to adjust?

  • Published:
Evolutionary Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Plant populations and species differ greatly in phenotypic plasticity. This could be because plasticity is advantageous under some conditions and disadvantageous or not advantageous under others. We distinguish adaptive from injurious and neutral plasticity and discuss when selection should favor adaptive plasticity over genetic differentiation or lack of phenotypic variation. It seems reasonable to hypothesize that selection is likely to favor plasticity when an environmental factor varies on the same spatial scale as the plant response unit, when the plant can respond to an environmental factor faster than the level of the factor changes, and when environmental variation is highly but not completely predictable. Phenotypic plasticity might also tend to be more advantageous when mean resource availability is high rather than low, when a response can occur late in development rather than early, and when a response is reversible rather than irreversible. There is substantial evidence for the hypothesis that predictability favors plasticity. However, available evidence does not support the hypothesis that high mean resource availability necessarily favors plasticity. Testing hypotheses about when it is good for a plant to adjust is central to understanding the diversity of plasticity in plants.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ackerly, D. (1997) Allocation, leaf display, and growth in fluctuating light environments. In F.A. Bazzaz and J. Grace (eds) Plant Resource Allocation. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agrawal, A.A. (1998) Induced responses to herbivory and increased plant performance. Science 279, 1201–1202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alpert, P. (1991) Nitrogen sharing among ramets increases clonal growth in Fragaria chiloensis. Ecology 72, 69–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alpert, P. (1996) Nitrogen sharing in natural clonal fragments of Fragaria chiloensis. J. Ecol. 84, 395–406.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alpert, P. and Mooney, H.A. (1996) Resource heterogeneity generated by shrubs and topography on coastal sand dunes. Vegetatio 122, 83–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw, A.D. (1965) Evolutionary significance of phenotypic plasticity in plants. Adv. Genet. 13, 115–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapin, F.S. III (1980) The mineral nutrition of wild plants. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 11, 233–260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cipollini, D. (1998) Induced defenses and phenotypic plasticity. Trends Ecol. Evol. 13, 200.

    Google Scholar 

  • Claassen, V.P. and Marler, M. (1998) Annual and perennial grass growth on nitrogen-depleted decomposed granite. Restorat. Ecol. 6, 175–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colasanti, R.L. and Hunt, R. (1997) Resource dynamics and plant growth: a self-assembling model for individuals, populations and communities. Funct. Ecol. 11, 133–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, J.S., McConnaughay, K.D.M. and Ackerly, D.D. (1994) Interpreting phenotypic variation in plants. Trends Ecol. Evol. 9, 187–190.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Kroon, H. and Hutchings, M.J. (1995) Morphological plasticity in clonal plants: the foraging concept reconsidered. J. Ecol. 83, 143–152.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Kroon, H., Fransen, B., van Rheenen, J.W.A., van Dijk, A. and Kreulen, R. (1996) High levels of inter-ramet water translocation in two rhizomatous Carex species, as quantified by deuterium labelling. Oecologia 106, 73–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeWitt, T.J., Sih, A. and Wilson, D.S. (1998) Costs and limits of phenotypic plasticity. Trends Ecol. Evol. 13, 77–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dong, M. (1995) Morphological responses to local light conditions in clonal herbs from contrasting habitats, and their modification due to physiological integration. Oecologia 101, 282–288.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dong, M. and Alaten, B. (1999) Clonal plasticity in response to rhizome severing and heterogeneous resource supply in the rhizomatous grass Psammachloa villosa in an Inner Mongolian dune. China. Plant Ecol. 141, 53–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dong, M., During, H.J. and Werger, M.J.A. (1996) Morphological responses to nutrient availability in four clonal herbs. Vegetatio 123, 183–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dudley, S.A. and Schmitt, J. (1996) Testing the adaptive plasticity hypothesis: density-dependent selection on manipulated stem length in Impatiens capensis. Am. Nat. 147, 445–465.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fransen, B., de Kroon, H. and Berendse, F. (1998) Root morphological plasticity and nutrient acquisition of perennial grass species from habitats of different nutrient availability. Oecologia 115, 351–358.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gedroc, J.J., McConnaughay, K.D.M. and Coleman, J.S. (1996) Plasticity in root/shoot partitioning: optimal, ontogenetic, or both? Funct. Ecol. 10, 44–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grime, J.P. (1994) The role of plasticity in exploiting environmental heterogeneity. In M.M. Caldwell and R.W. Pearcy (eds) Exploitation of Environmental Heterogeneity in Plants: Ecophysiological Processes Above-and Below-ground. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huber, H. (1997) Architectural plasticity of stoloniferous and erect herbs in response to light climate. Ph.D. Dissertation, Utrecht University, Utrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huber, H. and Hutchings, M.J. (1997) Differential response to shading in orthotropic and plagiotropic shoots of the clonal herb Glechoma hirsuta. Oecologia 112, 485–491.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchings, M.J. and de Kroon, H. (1994) Foraging in plants: the role of morphological plasticity in resource acquisition. Adv. Ecol. Res. 25, 159–238.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karban, R. and Baldwin, I.T. (1997) Induced Response to Herbivory. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kigel, J. and Koller, D. (1985) Asexual reproduction of weeds. In S.O. Duke (ed) Weed Physiology. Vol. 1. Reproduction and Ecophysiology. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kolb, A. (1999) Patterns of biological invasions in a California coastal grassland - the role of environmental stress. M.Sc. Thesis. University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levins, R. (1968) Evolution in Changing Environments. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linhart, Y.B. and Grant, M.C. (1996) Evolutionary significance of local genetic differentiation in plants. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 27, 237–277.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muller, I., Schmid, B. and Weiner, J. (2000) The effect of nutrient availability on biomass allocation patterns in 27 species of herbaceous plants. Perspect. Plant Ecol. Evol. Syst. 3, 115–127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nernberg, D. and Dale, M.R.T. (1997) Competition of five native prairie grasses with Bromus inermis under three moisture regimes. Can. J. Bot. 75, 2140–2145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oborny, B. (1994) Growth rules in clonal plants and predictability of the environment: a simulation study. J. Ecol. 82, 341–351.

    Google Scholar 

  • Padilla, D.K. and Adolph, S.C. (1996) Plastic inducible morphologies are not always adaptive: the importance of time delays in a stochastic environment. Evol. Ecol. 10, 105–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pigliucci, M. (1996) How organisms respond to environmental changes: from phenotypes to molecules (and vice versa). Trends Ecol. Evol. 11, 168-173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds, H.L. and D'Antonio, C. (1996) The ecological significance of plasticity in root weight ratio in response to nitrogen: Opinion. Plant Soil 185, 75–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheiner, S.M. (1993) Genetics and evolution of phenotypic plasticity. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 24, 35–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlichting, C.D. and Pigliucci, M. (1998) Phenotypic Evolution: a Reaction Norm Perspective. Sinauer Press, Sunderland, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmid, B. (1992) Phenotypic variation in plants. Evol. Trends Plants 6, 45–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmid, B. and Bazzaz, F.A. (1990) Plasticity in plant size and architecture in rhizome-derived vs. seed-derived Solidago and Aster. Ecology 71, 523–535.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmid, B., Birrer, A. and Lavigne, C. (1996) Genetic variation in the response of plant populations to elevated CO2 in a nutrient-poor, calcareous grassland. In C. Körner and F.A. Bazzaz (eds) Carbon Dioxide, Populations, and Communities. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, J., McCormac, A.C. and Smyth, H. (1995) A test of the adaptive plasticity hypothesis using transgenic and mutant plants disabled in phytochrome-mediated elongation responses to neighbours. Am. Nat. 146, 937–953.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, J. and Wulff, R.D. (1993) Light spectral quality, phytochrome and plant competition. Trends Ecol. Evol. 8, 47–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schweitzer, J.A. and Larson, K.C. (1999) Greater morphological plasticity of exotic honeysuckle species may make them better invaders than native species. J. Torrey Bot. Soc. 126, 15–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strong, D.R., Maron, J.L., Connors, P.G., Whipple, A., Harrison, S. and Jeffries, R.L. (1995) High mortality, fluctuation in numbers, and heavy subterranean insect herbivory in bush lupine, Lupinus arboreus. Oecologia 104, 85–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sultan, S.E. and Bazzaz, F.A. (1993) Phenotypic plasticity in Polygonum persicaria. II. Norms of reaction to soil moisture and the maintenance of genetic diversity. Evolution 47, 1032–1049.

    Google Scholar 

  • Via, S., Gomulkiewicz, R., De Jong, G., Scheiner, S.M., Schlichting, C.D. and Van Tienderen, P.H. (1995) Adaptive phenotypic plasticity: consensus and controversy. Trends Ecol. Evol. 10, 212–217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, M.A. (1990) Phenological effects of clone development and demography. In J. van Groenendael and H. de Kroon (eds) Clonal Growth in Plants: Regulation and Function. SPB Academic Publishing, The Hague.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, M.A., Geber, M.A. and Jones, C.S. (1995) Ontogenetic contingency and the expression of plant plasticity. Trends Ecol. Evol. 10, 474–475.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, M.A., Hay, M.J.M. and Newton, P.C.D. (1997) Developmental phenology and the timing of determination of shoot bud fates: ways in which the developmental program modulates fitness in clonal plants. In H. de Kroon and J. van Groenendael (eds) The Ecology and Evolution of Clonal Plants. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden.

    Google Scholar 

  • West-Eberhard, M.J. (1989) Phenotypic plasticity and the origins of diversity. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 20, 249–278.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wijesinghe, D.K. and Hutchings, M.J. (1997) The effects of spatial scale of environmental heterogeneity on the growth of a clonal plant: an experimental study with Glechoma hederacea. J. Ecol. 85, 17–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wijesinghe, D.K. and Hutchings, M.J. (1999) The effects of environmental heterogeneity on the performance of Glechoma hederacea: the interactions between patch contrast and patch scale. J. Ecol. 87, 860–872.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D.G., Mack, R.N. and Black, R.A. (1995) Ecophysiology of introduced Pennisetum setaceum on Hawaii - the role of phenotypic plasticity. Ecology 76, 1569–1580.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willis, A.J., Memmott, J. and Forrester, R.I. (2000) Is there evidence for the post-invasion evolution of increased size among invasive plant species? Ecol. Lett. 3, 275–283.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003-9297, USA; tel.:

    Peter Alpert

  2. Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94920, USA

    Ellen L. Simms

Authors
  1. Peter Alpert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ellen L. Simms
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Alpert.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Alpert, P., Simms, E.L. The relative advantages of plasticity and fixity in different environments: when is it good for a plant to adjust?. Evolutionary Ecology 16, 285–297 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019684612767

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019684612767

Search

Navigation