Data from: Adaptive phenotypic plasticity for life-history and less fitness-related traits

Organisms are faced with variable environments and one of the most common
solutions to cope with such variability is phenotypic plasticity, a
modification of the phenotype to the environment. These modifications are
commonly modelled in evolutionary theories as adaptive, influencing
ecological and evolutionary processes. If plasticity is adaptive, we would
predict that the closer to fitness a trait is, the less plastic it would
be. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a meta-analysis of 213 studies
and measured the plasticity of each reported trait as a coefficient of
variation (CV). Traits were categorised as closer to fitness -
life-history traits (LHt) including reproduction and survival
related-traits, and farther from fitness - non-life-history traits (N-LHt)
including traits related to development, metabolism and physiology,
morphology and behaviour. Our results showed, unexpectedly, that although
traits differed in their amounts of plasticity, trait plasticity was not
related to its proximity to fitness. These findings were independent of
taxonomic groups or environmental types assessed. We caution against
general expectations that plasticity is adaptive, as assumed by many
models of its evolution. More studies are needed that test the adaptive
nature of plasticity, and additional theoretical explorations on adaptive
and non-adaptive plasticity are encouraged.