An individual's morphology is shaped by the environmental pressures it experiences, and the resulting morphological response is the culmination of both genetic factors and environmental (non‐genetic) conditions experienced early in its life (i.e. phenotypic plasticity). The role that phenotypic plasticity plays in shaping phenotypes is important, but evidence for its influence is often mixed. We exposed female neonate diamond‐backed watersnakes (Nerodia rhombifer) from populations experiencing different prey‐size regimes to different feeding treatments to test the influence of phenotypic plasticity in shaping trophic morphology. We found that snakes in a large‐prey treatment from a population frequently encountering large prey exhibited a higher growth rate in body size than individuals in a small‐prey treatment from the same population. This pattern was not observed in snakes from a population that regularly encounters small prey. We also found that regardless of treatment, snakes from the small‐prey population were smaller at birth than snakes from the large‐prey population and remained so throughout the study. These results suggest that the ability to plastically respond to environmental pressures may be population‐specific. These results also indicate a genetic predisposition towards larger body sizes in a population where large prey items are more common.

中文翻译：

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表型可塑性在水蛇种群形态分化中的作用。

一个人的形态受其所承受的环境压力的影响，由此产生的形态反应是其生命早期经历的遗传因素和环境（非遗传）条件（即表型可塑性）的最高峰。表型可塑性在塑造表型中的作用很重要，但对其影响的证据常常是混杂的。我们暴露了女性刚出生的钻石背蛇（Nerodia rhombifer），从经历不同猎物大小制度的人群到不同的喂养方法，以测试表型可塑性对塑造营养形态的影响。我们发现，在经常遇到大型猎物的种群中，进行大型猎物处理的蛇比具有相同种群的小型猎物处理中的个体，其体形生长速率更高。在经常遇到小猎物的种群的蛇中没有观察到这种模式。我们还发现，不管采用哪种治疗方法，小猎物种群的蛇出生时都比大猎物种群的蛇小，并且在整个研究中一直如此。这些结果表明，对环境压力进行塑性响应的能力可能因特定人群而异。