When the sun never sets: diverse activity rhythms under continuous daylight in free-living arctic-breeding birds
Circadian clocks are centrally involved in the regulation of daily behavioural and physiological processes. These clocks are synchronized to the 24 h day by external cues (Zeitgeber), the most important of which is the light–dark cycle. In polar environments, however, the strength of the Zeitgeber i...
Published in: | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3712422 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23782884 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1016 |
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3712422 2023-05-15T15:07:37+02:00 When the sun never sets: diverse activity rhythms under continuous daylight in free-living arctic-breeding birds Steiger, Silke S. Valcu, Mihai Spoelstra, Kamiel Helm, Barbara Wikelski, Martin Kempenaers, Bart 2013-08-07 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3712422 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23782884 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1016 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3712422 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23782884 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1016 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ © 2013 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Articles Text 2013 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1016 2013-09-05T02:31:55Z Circadian clocks are centrally involved in the regulation of daily behavioural and physiological processes. These clocks are synchronized to the 24 h day by external cues (Zeitgeber), the most important of which is the light–dark cycle. In polar environments, however, the strength of the Zeitgeber is greatly reduced around the summer and winter solstices (continuous daylight or continuous darkness). How animals time their behaviour under such conditions has rarely been studied in the wild. Using a radio-telemetry-based system, we investigated daily activity rhythms under continuous daylight in Barrow, Alaska, throughout the breeding season in four bird species that differ in mating system and parental behaviour. We found substantial diversity in daily activity rhythms depending on species, sex and breeding stage. Individuals exhibited either robust, entrained 24 h activity cycles, were continuously active (arrhythmic) or showed ‘free-running’ activity cycles. In semipalmated sandpipers, a shorebird with biparental incubation, we show that the free-running rhythm is synchronized between pair mates. The diversity of diel time-keeping under continuous daylight emphasizes the plasticity of the circadian system, and the importance of the social and life-history context. Our results support the idea that circadian behaviour can be adaptively modified to enable species-specific time-keeping under polar conditions. Text Arctic Barrow Alaska PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 280 1764 20131016 |
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English |
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Research Articles |
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Research Articles Steiger, Silke S. Valcu, Mihai Spoelstra, Kamiel Helm, Barbara Wikelski, Martin Kempenaers, Bart When the sun never sets: diverse activity rhythms under continuous daylight in free-living arctic-breeding birds |
topic_facet |
Research Articles |
description |
Circadian clocks are centrally involved in the regulation of daily behavioural and physiological processes. These clocks are synchronized to the 24 h day by external cues (Zeitgeber), the most important of which is the light–dark cycle. In polar environments, however, the strength of the Zeitgeber is greatly reduced around the summer and winter solstices (continuous daylight or continuous darkness). How animals time their behaviour under such conditions has rarely been studied in the wild. Using a radio-telemetry-based system, we investigated daily activity rhythms under continuous daylight in Barrow, Alaska, throughout the breeding season in four bird species that differ in mating system and parental behaviour. We found substantial diversity in daily activity rhythms depending on species, sex and breeding stage. Individuals exhibited either robust, entrained 24 h activity cycles, were continuously active (arrhythmic) or showed ‘free-running’ activity cycles. In semipalmated sandpipers, a shorebird with biparental incubation, we show that the free-running rhythm is synchronized between pair mates. The diversity of diel time-keeping under continuous daylight emphasizes the plasticity of the circadian system, and the importance of the social and life-history context. Our results support the idea that circadian behaviour can be adaptively modified to enable species-specific time-keeping under polar conditions. |
format |
Text |
author |
Steiger, Silke S. Valcu, Mihai Spoelstra, Kamiel Helm, Barbara Wikelski, Martin Kempenaers, Bart |
author_facet |
Steiger, Silke S. Valcu, Mihai Spoelstra, Kamiel Helm, Barbara Wikelski, Martin Kempenaers, Bart |
author_sort |
Steiger, Silke S. |
title |
When the sun never sets: diverse activity rhythms under continuous daylight in free-living arctic-breeding birds |
title_short |
When the sun never sets: diverse activity rhythms under continuous daylight in free-living arctic-breeding birds |
title_full |
When the sun never sets: diverse activity rhythms under continuous daylight in free-living arctic-breeding birds |
title_fullStr |
When the sun never sets: diverse activity rhythms under continuous daylight in free-living arctic-breeding birds |
title_full_unstemmed |
When the sun never sets: diverse activity rhythms under continuous daylight in free-living arctic-breeding birds |
title_sort |
when the sun never sets: diverse activity rhythms under continuous daylight in free-living arctic-breeding birds |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3712422 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23782884 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1016 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Barrow Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Barrow Alaska |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3712422 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23782884 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1016 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ © 2013 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1016 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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280 |
container_issue |
1764 |
container_start_page |
20131016 |
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1766339086346354688 |