研究人员发现，一些表型-环境错配错误可以用野生红松鼠不同类型错误的不对称代价来解释。当食物脉冲信号没有出现时，错误地增加生殖付出的母亲更有可能在食物脉冲出现时正确地增加生殖付出。然而，当即将到来的食物脉冲信号出现时，没有增加付出的母亲会遭受终生的健康损失，只能通过补充食物来抵消。因此，在波动的环境中，这种表型-环境不匹配可能反映了一种高估环境线索的倾向，并避免犯代价最大的错误，最终提高了终身适应性。
据悉，生物体的表型与其环境之间的不匹配会导致短期的适应性成本。
附：英文原文
Title: Phenotype–environment mismatch errors enhance lifetime fitness in wild red squirrels
Author: Lauren Petrullo, Stan Boutin, Jeffrey E. Lane, Andrew G. McAdam, Ben Dantzer
Issue&Volume: 2023-01-20
Abstract: Mismatches between an organism’s phenotype and its environment can result in short-term fitness costs. Here, we show that some phenotype–environment mismatch errors can be explained by asymmetrical costs of different types of errors in wild red squirrels. Mothers that mistakenly increased reproductive effort when signals of an upcoming food pulse were absent were more likely to correctly increase effort when a food pulse did occur. However, mothers that failed to increase effort when cues of an upcoming food pulse were present suffered lifetime fitness costs that could only be offset through food supplementation. In fluctuating environments, such phenotype–environment mismatches may therefore reflect a bias to overestimate environmental cues and avoid making the costliest error, ultimately enhancing lifetime fitness.
DOI: abn0665
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn0665