Table 1.

Variables and parametrization. All variables and parameters can take continuous values.

	initialization	constraints during simulations	description
parameters
Std-Dev-environment-change	(0.04–1)	initialization value	determines the degree of environmental stochasticity environmentt + 1 = environmentt + N ∼ (0, Std-Dev-environment-change)
plasticity-costs	(0–1)	initialization value	determines whether plasticity carries a load reducing odds of survival and reproducing
mean-mutational-change	(0–0.002)	initialization value	determines both the probability of occurrence of genetic changes and their effect size on the phenotype
emergent values
environment	0.5	[0,1]	expresses the environmental conditions on a single dimension, the same one used to describe the phenotype, the genotype and the plasticity-range
non-plastics and plastics
phenotype	0	—	phenotypic value expressed in the same dimension as the environment
genotype	0	—	in the absence of plasticity, the phenotype = genotype
match	n.a.	—	absolute difference between the phenotypic value and the environmental value; the phenotype is optimized if match = 1 1 - |environment - phenotype|
plastics only
plasticity-range	0	—	the maximum phenotypic adjustment that a genotype is capable to increase match
used-plasticity	n.a.	0 ≤ used-plasticity ≤ plasticity-range	amount of the plasticity-range that is actually used by an individual during development