Abstract：
Organisms can often respond adaptively to a change in their environment through phenotypic plasticity in multiple traits, a phenomenon termed as multivariate plasticity. These different plastic responses could interact and affect each other\'s development as well as selection on each other, but the causes and consequences of these interactions have received relatively little attention. Here, we propose a new conceptual framework for understanding how different plastic responses can affect each other\'s development and why organisms should have multiple plastic responses. A plastic change in one trait could alter the phenotype of a second plastic trait by changing either the cue received by the organism (cue-mediated effect) or the response to that cue (response-mediated effect). Multivariate plasticity could benefit the organism either because the plastic responses work better when expressed together (synergy) or because each response is more effective under different environmental circumstances (complementarity). We illustrate these hypotheses with case studies, focusing on interactions between behavior and morphology, plastic traits that differ in their reversibility. Future empirical and theoretical research should investigate the consequences of these interactions for additional factors important for the evolution of plasticity, such as the limits and costs of plasticity.
摘要：
生物体通常可以通过多种性状的表型可塑性来适应其环境的变化，一种被称为多变量可塑性的现象。这些不同的塑性反应可以相互作用并影响彼此的发展以及彼此的选择，但是这些相互作用的原因和后果受到的关注相对较少。这里,我们提出了一个新的概念框架，用于理解不同的塑性反应如何影响彼此的发育，以及为什么生物体应该具有多种塑性反应。一种性状的可塑性变化可以通过改变生物体接受的提示（提示介导的作用）或对该提示的反应（反应介导的作用）来改变第二种可塑性性状的表型。多变量可塑性可以使生物体受益，因为可塑性反应在一起表达时更好地发挥作用（协同作用），或者因为每种反应在不同的环境条件下更有效（互补性）。我们用案例研究来说明这些假设，关注行为和形态之间的相互作用，可逆性不同的塑性特征。未来的经验和理论研究应该调查这些相互作用对可塑性演变重要的额外因素的后果，比如可塑性的极限和成本。
