Digest: Changing environment often easier than changing phenotype.

What strategy should an individual follow when faced with a suboptimal environment: change the environment, adapt to the environment, or both? Scheiner et al. used an individual-based model to address the interaction of plasticity and habitat construction with different life histories in a heterogeneous environment. In most situations, habitat construction was superior to either plasticity or a mixed strategy, but not always, and specific conditions may favor plasticity.