Fig 1.
Evolution of reaction norms in fine-grained environments.
(A) Average plasticity (orange line) and lack of fit (blue line) of the population over time, relative to the optimal adaptive reaction norm, see Evaluation of reaction norms. The dashed orange line indicates optimal long-term adaptive plasticity (B) Evolved reaction norms (grey lines) compared to optimal reaction norm (dashed line) at the end of the evolutionary period. Crosses indicate optima corresponding to environmental values used in the simulation. Dots indicate the phenotypes expressed for environmental values used in the simulation. The population evolves optimal adaptive plasticity.
Fig 2.
Evolution of reaction norms in slow coarse-grained environments.
(A) Lack of fit (see Evaluation of reaction norms) in current (green lines) and past (blue lines) environments. Orange line indicates average plasticity in the population, dashed orange line optimal long-term plasticity. (B) Evolved reaction norms (grey lines) compared to optimal reaction norm (dashed line) at the end of the evolutionary period. Crosses indicate optima corresponding to environmental values used in the simulation. Dots indicate the phenotypes expressed for those values. The population re-adapts to the current environment after each environmental change (adaptive tracking).
Fig 3.
Evolution of reaction norms in fast coarse-grained environments.
(A) Lack of fit (see Evaluation of reaction norms) in the current (green line) and past (blue line) environments. Orange line indicates the average slope of plasticity in the population, dashed orange line indicates optimal long-term adaptive plasticity. (B) Evolved reaction norms (grey lines) compared to optimal reaction norm (dashed line) at the end of the evolutionary period. Crosses indicate optima corresponding to environmental values used in the simulation. Dots indicate the phenotypes expressed for those values. The population evolves optimal adaptive plasticity.
Fig 4.
Evolution of reaction norms under strong selection weak mutation.
Panels to the left show population performance (see section Evaluation of reaction norms) over time in current (green line) and past (blue line) environments. Panels to the right show the evolved reaction norm (solid line) compared to optimal reaction norm (dashed line) at the end of the evolutionary period. Crosses indicate optima corresponding to environmental values used in the simulation. Dots indicate the phenotypes expressed for those values. (A) Slow coarse-grained environments (K = 40000) (B) Fine-grained environments (K = 0.1) (C) Fast coarse-grained environments (K = 1). Performance over time and evolved reaction norms are identical to weak selection scenarios.
Fig 5.
Evolution of reaction norms in slow coarse-grained environments with low mutation rates.
(A) Lack of fit (see Evaluation of reaction norms) in current (green lines) and past (blue lines) environments. Orange lines indicate realized (solid lines) and optimal (dashed lines) adaptive plasticity. (B) Evolved reaction norms (grey lines) compared to optimal reaction norm (dashed line) at the end of the evolutionary period. Crosses indicate optima corresponding to environmental values used in the simulation. Dots indicate the phenotypes expressed for those values. The population slowly evolves optimal adaptive plasticity.
Fig 6.
Evolution of reaction norms in slow coarse-grained environments with low mutation rates under SSWM (A) lack of fit (see Evaluation of reaction norms) in current (green line) and past (blue line) environments.
The solid orange lines indicates average population plalsticity, the dashed orange line optimal adaptive plasticity (B) Evolved reaction norms (grey lines) compared to optimal reaction norm (dashed line) at the end of the evolutionary period. Crosses indicate optima corresponding to environmental values used in the simulation. Dots indicate the phenotypes expressed for those values. The population slowly evolves optimal adaptive plasticity.
Table 1.
Predictions and falsifying evidence on the evolution of costly adaptive plasticity (CAP).