It gets complicated

 Phenotypic plasticity in an environment is the change in an organism caused by environmental stress. Some common changes in the organism include color, size, eating habits, physiology, and other behavioral or phenotypic traits that can be easily modified with their conditions. These changes lead to evolutionary processes because, if the changes are hereditary, they are passed onto their offspring and begin being selected for or against in a population. 

For example, as the temperature changes to where it is warmer for longer in an environment, it becomes more beneficial to be a brown bunny compared to a white bunny because it is not snowing as often. The brown bunnies therefore have a higher survival rate. However, 100 years ago, only white bunnies were present in the population. One bunny mutated and became a creamy color of fur instead of pale white. This bunny found it easier to survive and 50 years later, more cream bunnies appeared! We were even starting to see bunnies become darker than a cream color and today, the majority of the bunny population in this area is a brown color through natural selection. 




Comments

  1. AnnahOctober 12, 2024 at 1:35 PM

    Hi Abby- I love your bunnies! Your explanation of phenotypic plasticity is well wrote and explains the concept well. Good job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brooke KraybillOctober 13, 2024 at 8:13 PM

    I think the fur color in bunnies is a good choice for explaining plasticity! Your explanation is clear and concise. I think you could potentially add a graph showing the relationship between fur color and temperature to really solidify your post!
    Great work!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mike J.October 13, 2024 at 9:24 PM

    I think that fur color is a good choice for explaining plasticity, but your explanation may need a bit of a tweak. Phenotypic plasticity describes a phenotypic trait that changes within an organism's lifetime to help it adapt to changing conditions, from the extremes of a chameleon changing colors quickly to a fox molting from a summer to winter coat annually.

    ReplyDelete
  4. KelleyOctober 20, 2024 at 1:03 PM

    Hi Abby! I thought your bunny example was great for describing phenotypic plasticity! I think your example does a great job describing how fur color changes in response to the environment which helps the bunnies adapt and survive.

    ReplyDelete

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