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Clocks for the city: circadian differences between forest and city songbirds

Although based on only two populations, the findings point to links between city life, chronotype and circadian phenotype in songbirds, and potentially in other organisms that colonize urban habitats, and highlight that urban environments can significantly modify biologically important rhythms in wild organisms.
Royal Society (opens in a new tab)

Annual rhythms that underlie phenology: biological time-keeping meets environmental change

It is proposed that consideration of Homo sapiens as principally a ‘seasonal animal’ can inspire new perspectives for understanding medical and psychological problems and highlight the relevance of physiological and neurobiological regulation for organisms’ responsiveness to environmental conditions.
Royal Society (opens in a new tab)

Wing pointedness associated with migratory distance in common‐garden and comparative studies of stonechats (Saxicola torquata)

Migration in stonechats may lead to deviations from allometric size changes, suggesting that birds may adapt morphologically to selection pressures created by their own behaviour in response to changing environmental conditions.
Wiley (opens in a new tab)

Body surface temperature responses to food restriction in wild and captive great tits (Parus major)

Urban effects on timing and variability of diel activity differ across passerine species and seasons

It is concluded that, for birds, urban life is associated with less rest, less consistency, and lower synchronicity, but that effect sizes depend on species and time of the year.
PubMed (opens in a new tab)

Experimental light at night explains differences in activity onset between urban and forest great tits

It is demonstrated that ALAN can explain the early activity timing in incubating urban great tits, but its effects on sleep disturbance in the forest are not reflected in urban females, and future research needs to address potential effects of ALAN-induced timing on individual health, fitness and population dynamics.
Royal Society (opens in a new tab)

Female chronotype relates to lay date but not fitness in an island population of great tits

The findings suggest that chronotype is not under strong selection, or perhaps under fluctuating selection, allowing high between-individual variation to persist, and suggest that great tits are not under strong selection, or under fluctuating selection, allowing high between-individual variation to persist.
Springer Nature (opens in a new tab)

It Pays to Sit Tight: Stable Night-Time Incubation Increases Hatching Success in Urban and Forest Great Tits, Parus major

It is proposed that stable parental night rest enhances the chances of embryos to hatch and might shorten incubation time, but that, in an urbanizing world, night rest may be compromised.
BioOne (opens in a new tab)

Disrupted seasonal biology impacts health, food security, and ecosystems: a call for integrated research

This review emphasizes the need for a better understanding of seasonal biology against the backdrop of its rapidly progressing disruption through climate change, human lifestyles and other anthropogenic impact, and introduces scenarios of seasonal disruption and highlights key aspects of seasonal biology.

Reproductive fitness is associated with female chronotype in a songbird

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Publisher (opens in a new tab)
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