Annual, Lunar, and Tidal Clocks : Patterns and Mechanisms of Nature's Enigmatic Rhythms

There is more to biological rhythms than circadian clocks. This book aims at promoting the exciting potential of a deeper understanding of circannual, circatidal, and circalunar clocks. It highlights new developments, summarizes existing knowledge, and integrates different perspectives with the tools and ideas of diverse fields of current biology. For predominantly pragmatic reasons, research in recent decades was mostly concerned with circadian clocks. Clocks on other timescales, however, have been largely neglected and therefore still appear "enigmatic". Thanks to the rapid development of methods in molecular biology as well as in ecology, we are now able to re-approach these clocks. Laboratories around the world are showing fresh interest and substantial progress is being made in many independent projects. The book's two sections address the moon-derived circatidal, circasemilunar, and lunar cycles on the one hand (10 chapters), and the sun-derived circannual cycles on the other (6 chapters). This work brings together authors with an expansive array of expertise and study systems, ranging from tidal cycles of marine invertebrates to annual cycles of birds and mammals, and from behavioral to genetic and epigenetic backgrounds. While great challenges remain to be mastered, the book aims at conveying the excitement of unraveling, broadly, the rhythms of life. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Timing in Tidal, Semilunar, and Lunar Rhythms....Pages 3-24 Circatidal Rhythms and Their Entrainment to the Tidal Cycle in Insects....Pages 25-39 Daily and Tidal Rhythms in Intertidal Marine Invertebrates....Pages 41-63 Circatidal and Circadian Rhythms in Crustacean Swimming Behavior....Pages 65-80 Coral Spawning Behavior and Timing....Pages 81-97 Lunar Periods in the Annual Reproductive Cycles of Marine Invertebrates from Cold Subtidal and Deep-Sea Environments....Pages 99-120 Local Adaptations of Circalunar and Circadian Clocks: The Case of Clunio marinus ....Pages 121-141 Circadian and Circalunar Clock Interactions and the Impact of Light in Platynereis dumerilii ....Pages 143-162 Lunar Clock in Fish Reproduction....Pages 163-178 The Clock-Work Worms: Diversity and Function of Clock Expression in Marine Polychaete Worms....Pages 179-199 Front Matter....Pages 201-201 Circannual Rhythms: History, Present Challenges, Future Directions....Pages 203-225 Stem Cell Regulation of Circannual Rhythms....Pages 227-245 Seasonality of Life Histories in Tropical Birds: Circannual Rhythms and Zeitgeber ....Pages 247-275 The Circannual Clock in the European Hamster: How Is It Synchronized by Photoperiodic Changes?....Pages 277-308 Circannual Clocks in Tropical Bats and Heritable Variation in Seasonal Reproductive Timing in Temperate Zone Mice....Pages 309-331 Circannual Rhythms in Insects....Pages 333-350 Back Matter....Pages 351-360