Data for: Plasticity promotes persistence and evolution in novel environments

Phenotypic plasticity––the ability of organisms to alter their traits in response to changes in their environment––has long been thought to prevent extinction in novel or changing environments. If plasticity shifts phenotypes closer to new local fitness optima, it may “buy time” for populations to adapt to the changed conditions. However, there are few direct experimental tests linking plasticity to both persistence and subsequent evolution. Here, we use an experimental evolution approach to test these ideas in replicate populations of rotifers. We exposed 33 clonal lines that varied in plasticity to over 20 novel environments for up to 40 overlapping generations. Clonal populations expressing greater plastic responses in morphological and life-history traits persisted longer and were less likely to go extinct in novel environments than populations not expressing such plasticity. Among persisting populations, evolutionary change occurred in fitness and phenotypes, and more plastic populations both persisted longer and experienced greater evolutionary change. These results directly link plasticity to population persistence and subsequent evolution in novel environments, providing experimental support for a key condition underlying evolutionary rescue: that plasticity can allow populations to avoid extinction long enough for adaptation to occur.