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CHRONOBIOLOGY

Timing requires the right amount and type of light

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 5, pages 153–154 (2021)Cite this article

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The quantity of UVA/deep violet light varies seasonally and affects locomotor activity in a marine annelid, providing cues for phenology in addition to those provided by change in photoperiod.

The daily 24-hour cycle of light and darkness and the annual 12-month cycle of changing day length, or photoperiod, constitute the two major and highly predictable cycles of the biosphere. Organisms have adapted to these cycles by developing endogenous clocks. Biological clocks are also crucial for inter- and intra-specific interactions, and consequently play a major role in the functionality of ecosystems. The internal circadian clock (derived from the Latin phrase ‘about a day’) enables organisms to track daily changes in their environment, and is the most studied and best mechanistically understood timing system1. Further, by sensing the photoperiod, a circannual (‘about a year’) clock allows organisms to anticipate and prepare for seasonal changes in their environment. Impressive examples of this periodic timing of biological processes — known as phenology — in animals include the seasonal migration of birds and mass spawning events of corals in the ocean. However, while patterns of animal phenology are often well described, there is an overall lack of understanding of the underlying timing mechanisms, especially in marine organisms, despite some recent advances2,3. We do know that light forms the dominant signal in resetting both circadian and circannual clocks. Besides the duration of light exposure (the photoperiod), recent results show that wavelength composition (light quality) has a role in the entrainment of circadian rhythms4, suggesting it might also provide a cue for seasonal timing.

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Fig. 1: The light spectrum could support the fine-tuning of annual timing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Polar Biological Oceanography Section, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Bettina Meyer, Lukas Hüppe & Laura Payton

  2. Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Bettina Meyer & Laura Payton

  3. Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) at the University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Bettina Meyer & Lukas Hüppe

Authors
  1. Bettina Meyer
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  2. Lukas Hüppe
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  3. Laura Payton
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Correspondence to Bettina Meyer.

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Meyer, B., Hüppe, L. & Payton, L. Timing requires the right amount and type of light. Nat Ecol Evol 5, 153–154 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-01373-0

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