Adaptive plasticity and fitness costs of endangered, nonendangered, and invasive plants in response to variation in nitrogen and phosphorus availabilities.

Global change drivers such as eutrophication and plant invasions will create novel environments for many plant species. Through adaptive trait plasticity plants may maintain their performance under these novel conditions and may outcompete those showing low-adaptive trait plasticity. In a greenhouse study, we determined if plasticity in traits is adaptive or maladaptive in endangered, nonendangered, and invasive plant species in response to variation of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) availability (N:P ratios 1.