Meaningful comparison of variation in quantitative trait requires controlling for both the dimension of the varying entity and the dimension of the factor generating variation. Although the coefficient of variation (CV; standard deviation divided by the mean) is often used to measure and compare variation of quantitative traits, it only accounts for the dimension of the former, and its use for comparing variation may sometimes be inappropriate. Here, we discuss the use of the CV to compare measures of evolvability and phenotypic plasticity, two variational properties of quantitative traits. Using a dimensional analysis, we show that contrary to evolvability, phenotypic plasticity cannot be meaningfully compared across traits and environments by mean‐scaling trait variation. We further emphasize the need of remaining cognizant of the dimensions of the traits and the relationship between mean and standard deviation when comparing CVs, even when the scales on which traits are expressed allow meaningful calculation of the CV.

中文翻译：

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关于使用变异系数来量化和比较性状变异

定量性状变异的有意义的比较需要同时控制变异实体的尺寸和产生变异的因素的尺寸。尽管经常使用变异系数（CV；标准偏差除以平均值）来度量和比较定量性状的变异，但它仅考虑了前者的维度，有时将其用于比较变异可能不合适。在这里，我们讨论了使用CV比较可进化性和表型可塑性（数量性状的两个变异特性）的方法。使用维度分析，我们发现与可进化性相反，表型可塑性不能通过均值尺度特征变化在特征和环境之间进行有意义的比较。