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

由于地球绕其轴自转，所有生命都在光照水平和温度等环境条件下24小时循环进化。这些都是强大的选择压力，导致许多生物体在生理和行为上进化出内部产生的24小时循环。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。只有当生物体与外部环境保持一致时，这种对时间环境的内部表现，或所谓的生物钟，才具有适应价值；使个人能够预测环境的定期变化，而不是简单地对其做出反应。在哺乳动物中，负责这种同步化的主要环境刺激是光；这一过程被称为光夹带。光是一种复杂和动态的环境信号，在强度、光谱(颜色)和持续时间方面有所不同，并受到当地环境的反射特性的影响。然而，在昼夜节律神经科学领域，光在实验室环境中已被广泛简化。因此，本项目通过在实验室中模拟自然光环境，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。

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.