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Biological rhythms

Wild times

Nature volume 540, pages 49–50 (2016)Cite this article

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Little is known about the biological rhythms that emerge from social behaviours in the wild. A study of shorebird pairs shows that rhythms of nest-incubation duties are mainly governed by strategies to avoid predators. See Letter p.109

Fundamental to all organisms, from bacteria to humans, is the daily oscillation of behaviour and physiology. During a 24-hour day, animals devote blocks of time to rest or activity1. The pace of the daily rhythm is mainly governed by an organism's circadian clock, which is synchronized to the daily light–dark cycle2,3,4,5. Biological rhythms can also be influenced by an organism's social environment; however, little is known about the factors that influence these social behavioural rhythms. On page 109, Bulla et al.6 report a large-scale study of the timing of daily nest-incubation duties shared between pairs of shorebirds.

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Figure 1: Nesting wild shorebirds use different strategies to avoid predators.

Gerrit Vyn/Nature Picture Library; Mike Wilkes/Nature Picture Library

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. C. Loren Buck is in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Center for Bioengineering Innovation, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011, USA.,

    C. Loren Buck

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  1. C. Loren Buck
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Correspondence to C. Loren Buck.

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Buck, C. Wild times. Nature 540, 49–50 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20481

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