Wie messen Organismen lunare Zyklen?
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Eggs of Dictyota dichotoma were liberated in a rhythm with periods of about 16 days under laboratory conditions (light-dark cycles of 14 : 10 hr). An “artificial moon”, i. e. replacement of the 10 hr dark period by light, controls the phases of the rhythm, even if this “moonlight” is of low intensity (3 lux) and lasts for one night only. The next maximum appears 9 days after this “moon”. Lowering the temperature from 20° to 14 ° or 16° has no strong effect on the normal length of these cycles. Exposure to “wrong” days (light+dark period 23,5 hr instead of 24 hr) causes a shortening of the periods to 13-14 days. The results can be explained by assuming the cooperation of two rhythms, giving beats with distances of a little more than 2 weeks. One of these two rhythms should correspond approximately to the periods of the tidal cycles (about 12,4 hr), the other one to the diurnal periodicity. Entrainment of the diurnal component to 23,5 instead of 24 hr explains the decreased distance of the beats. For Carcinus maenas it can be shown that in the periodicity of the running activity 2 rhythms with the postulated properties are participating.
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Circalunar or circasemilunar reproductive rhythms also exist in species of other eukaryotic kingdoms, such as the brown alga Dictyota dichotoma and the Peruvian apple cactus Cereus peruvianus.
“While our review focuses on the animal kingdom, it should be noted that circalunar or circasemilunar reproductive rhythms also exist in species of other eukaryotic kingdoms, such as the brown alga Dictyota dichotoma (kingdom Chromalveolata) (18) or the Peruvian apple cactus Cereus peruvianus (kingdom Archaeplastida) (19, 20).”
From An Overview of Monthly Rhythms and Clocks (2017) · cites this paper as [18]
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“Hauenschild [40] performed the same experiment as Bünning and Müller [91] and showed that its circalu-nar clock is independent of the circadian clock, because it persisted with unchanged period length under daily Zeitgeber cycles of 23.25 h [40].”
Influential
- Authors
- Bunning, E., & Müller, D.
- Affiliations
- Aus dem Botanischen Institut der Universität Tübingen
- University of Tübingen (DE)
- Venue
- Zeitschrift für Naturforschung B
- Publisher
- Walter de Gruyter GmbH
- Published
- 1961-06-01
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 391-395
- ISSN
- 0044-3174 (ISSN-L)
- 1865-7117
- 0932-0776
- OpenAlex
- W1986875699
- Cited by
- 64
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 4.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Zeitschrift für Naturforschung B (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Physiological and biochemical adaptations
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Crustacean biology and ecology
- Keywords
- lunar rhythms, Dictyota dichotoma, egg release, light-dark cycle, tidal cycles, diurnal cycle, entrainment, Carcinus maenas, running, circadian rhythm, bivalve reproduction
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