In mobile ad hoc networks (MANET), nodes move freely and the distribution of access requests changes dynamically. Replica allocation in such a dynamic environment is a significant challenge. In this paper, a dynamic adaptive replica allocation algorithm that can adapt to the nodes motion is proposed to minimize the communication cost of object access. When changes occur in the access requests of the object or the network topology, each replica node collects access requests from its neighbors and makes decisions locally to expand replica to neighbors or to relinquish the replica. The algorithm dynamically adapts the replica allocation scheme to a local optimal one. Simulation results show that our algorithms efficiently reduce the communication cost of object access in MANET environment.