Circadian Ecology: the regulation of circadian rhythms by the natural light environment

昼夜生态学：自然光环境对昼夜节律的调节

• 批准号: 2270215
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2270215
• 关键词: Circadian; Ecology; regulation; circadian; rhythms

Due to the rotation of the earth on its axis, all life has evolved under 24-hour cycles in environmental conditions such as light levels and temperature. These have acted as strong selection pressures, resulting in many organisms evolving internally generated 24-hour cycles in physiology and behaviour. These are known as circadian rhythms, and span multiple levels of biological organisation from gene expression to sleep-wake patterns. This internal representation of the temporal environment, or so-called body clock, is only of adaptive value to an organism if it is aligned to the external environment; allowing individuals to anticipate, rather than simply respond to, regular changes in their environment. In mammals the primary environmental stimuli responsible for this synchronisation is light; a process known as photoentrainment. Light is a complex and dynamic environmental signal, varying in terms of intensity, spectrum (colour) and duration, as well as being influenced by the reflective properties of the local environment. However, in the field of circadian neuroscience light has become extensively simplified within the laboratory setting. Therefore, via the simulation of naturalistic light environments in the laboratory, this project seeks to combine visual ecology with circadian neuroscience in order to understand how the complex natural light environment regulates circadian rhythms.

由于地球绕地轴自转，所有生命都是在光照水平和温度等环境条件下以24小时为周期进化的。这些都是强大的选择压力，导致许多生物在生理和行为上产生24小时的内部进化周期。这些被称为昼夜节律，跨越从基因表达到睡眠-觉醒模式的多个生物组织水平。这种对时间环境的内部表征，或所谓的生物钟，只有在与外部环境保持一致的情况下，才对生物体具有适应价值；允许个人预测，而不是简单地对环境的定期变化作出反应。在哺乳动物中，负责这种同步的主要环境刺激是光；这个过程被称为光夹带。光是一个复杂和动态的环境信号，在强度、光谱（颜色）和持续时间方面都有所不同，并受到当地环境反射特性的影响。然而，在昼夜神经科学领域，光已经在实验室环境中得到了广泛的简化。因此，通过在实验室模拟自然光环境，本项目试图将视觉生态学与昼夜神经科学相结合，以了解复杂的自然光环境如何调节昼夜节律。

项目成果

Hyperspectral characterisation of natural illumination in woodland and forest environments

• DOI: 10.1117/12.2595301
• 发表时间: 2021-07
• 期刊: bioRxiv
• 作者: Liu Shiwen;Laura Steel;C. Dahlsjö;S. Peirson;A. Shenkin;Takuma Morimoto;H. Smithson;M. Spitschan