Data from: Evolution of phenotypic plasticity during environmental fluctuations

Evolution in fluctuating environments is predicted to disfavor genetic
canalization and instead select for alternative strategies, such as
phenotypic plasticity or possibly bet-hedging, depending on the accuracy
of environmental cues and type of fluctuations. While these two
alternatives are often contrasted in theoretical studies, their evolution
are seldom studied together in empirical work. We used experimental
evolution in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis remanei to
simultaneously study the evolution of plasticity and bet-hedging in
environments differing only in their temperature variability, where one
regime is exposed to faster temperature cycles between 20°C and 25°C, with
little autocorrelation between parent and offspring environment, while the
other regime had slowly increasing temperature with high autocorrelation
in temperature between parent and offspring. We exposed worms for 30
generations to either fluctuating or slowly increasing temperature, these
two environments had the same average temperature over evolutionary time.
After experimental evolution, we scored size at sexual maturity and
fitness in full siblings reared in two different temperatures, optimal
20°C and mildly stressful 25°C. The datasets contain data on adult size,
total reproduction and individual fitness of full-sibs from the two
evolutionary selection regimes, where each regime was replicated in 6
replicate populations. Experimental evolution in the fluctuating
environment resulted in the evolution of increased body size plasticity
but not increased bet-hedging, compared to evolution in the slowly
changing environment. Plasticity followed the temperature size rule as
size decreased with increasing temperature and this plastic response was
adaptive. In addition, we documented substantial standing genetic
variation in body size, which represents a potential for further
evolutionary change.