Editing Acclimatization (section)

==The theory==
While the capacity for acclimatization has been documented in thousands of species, researchers still know very little about how and why organisms acclimate in the way that they do. Since researchers first began to study acclimation, the overwhelming hypothesis has been that all acclimation serves to enhance the performance of the organism. This idea has come to be known as the [[beneficial acclimation hypothesis]]. Despite such widespread support for the beneficial acclimation hypothesis, not all studies show that acclimation always serves to enhance performance (''See [[beneficial acclimation hypothesis]]''). One of the major objections to the beneficial acclimation hypothesis is that it assumes that there are no costs associated with acclimation.<ref name = "Angilletta">Angilletta, M.J. (2009). Thermal Adaptation: A Theoretical and Empirical Synthesis. Oxford University Press, Oxford.</ref> However, there are likely to be costs associated with acclimation. These include the cost of sensing the environmental conditions and regulating responses, producing structures required for plasticity (such as the energetic costs in expressing [[heat shock protein]]s), and genetic costs (such as linkage of plasticity-related genes with harmful genes).<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=DeWitt|first1=Thomas J.|last2=Sih|first2=Andrew|last3=Wilson|first3=David Sloan|date=1998-02-01|title=Costs and limits of phenotypic plasticity|journal=Trends in Ecology & Evolution|volume=13|issue=2|pages=77–81|doi=10.1016/S0169-5347(97)01274-3|pmid=21238209}}</ref>

Given the shortcomings of the beneficial acclimation hypothesis, researchers are continuing to search for a theory that will be supported by empirical data.

The degree to which organisms are able to acclimate is dictated by their [[phenotypic plasticity]] or the ability of an organism to change certain traits. Recent research in the study of acclimation capacity has focused more heavily on the evolution of phenotypic plasticity rather than acclimation responses. Scientists believe that when they understand more about how organisms evolved the capacity to acclimate, they will better understand acclimation.