HUEY, R.B.: Behavior as a buffer of environmental change

A common view is that animals and plants differ fundamentally in the way they interact with the physical environment. For example, animals are generally much more mobile than plants and thus are better able to use behavior to ameliorate environmental change. If this is the case, then plants might be more likely to respond to environmental change via evolutionary shifts in physiological sensitivity rather than by behavioral shifts. I review how behavior can function as a buffer of environmental change, and then address whether behavioral options do in fact differ between plants and animals. I use examples drawn from the literature of ectotherm thermoregulation.