In: Biology
why does phenotypic plasticity in roots and shoots expected to be more important in environments where conditions are variable versus stable, and in long-lived versus short-lived species?
Phenotypic plasticity can be defined as ‘the ability of individual genotypes to produce different phenotypes when exposed to different environmental conditions’. This includes the possibility to modify developmental trajectories in response to specific environmental cues, and also the ability of an individual organism to change its phenotypic state or activity (e.g. its metabolism) in response to variations in environmental conditions.