Waiting for the Sun: the circannual programme of reindeer is delayed by the recurrence of rhythmical melatonin secretion after the arctic night.

At temperate latitudes, the annual cycle of day length synchronizes circannual rhythms, and, in mammals, this is mediated via nocturnal production of the pineal hormone melatonin, proportional to the length of the night. Here, we studied circannual synchronization in an arctic species, the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus), which ceases to produce a rhythmic melatonin signal when it is exposed to extended periods of continuous midwinter darkness and continuous midsummer light. Using food intake, antler growth and moult as endpoints, we demonstrate that when animals living at 70°N are transferred from natural photoperiods in late autumn to either continuous light or continuous darkness, they undergo a conspicuous acceleration of the circannual programme. We conclude that rhythmical melatonin secretion, recommencing when the Sun reappears late in January, is required for proper timing of spring physiological responses, through a delaying effect on the circannual programme set in motion during the preceding autumn.

Shifting mirrors: adaptive changes in retinal reflections to winter darkness in Arctic reindeer.

Arctic reindeer experience extreme changes in environmental light from continuous summer daylight to continuous winter darkness. Here, we show that they may have a unique mechanism to cope with winter darkness by changing the wavelength reflection from their tapetum lucidum (TL). In summer, it is golden with most light reflected back directly through the retina, whereas in winter it is deep blue with less light reflected out of the eye. The blue reflection in winter is associated with significantly increased retinal sensitivity compared with summer animals. The wavelength of reflection depends on TL collagen spacing, with reduced spacing resulting in shorter wavelengths, which we confirmed in summer and winter animals. Winter animals have significantly increased intra-ocular pressure, probably produced by permanent pupil dilation blocking ocular drainage. This may explain the collagen compression. The resulting shift to a blue reflection may scatter light through photoreceptors rather than directly reflecting it, resulting in elevated retinal sensitivity via increased photon capture. This is, to our knowledge, the first description of a retinal structural adaptation to seasonal changes in environmental light. Increased sensitivity occurs at the cost of reduced acuity, but may be an important adaptation in reindeer to detect moving predators in the dark Arctic winter.

The metabolic cost of incline locomotion in the Svalbard rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta hyperborea): the effects of incline grade and seasonal fluctuations in body mass.

In a terrestrial environment animals must locomote over varying terrain; despite this, the majority of studies of animal locomotion focus on level locomotion. The influence moving up an inclined surface has on the metabolic cost of locomotion and the efficiency with which animals perform positive work against gravity is still not well understood. Generally speaking, existing data sets lack consistency in the use of grades, further compounded by differences between species in terms of morphology and locomotor gait. Here we investigated the metabolic cost of locomotion using respirometry in the Svalbard ptarmigan (Lagopus muta hyperborea). The Svalbard ptarmigan provides a unique opportunity to investigate the cost of incline locomotion as it undergoes a seasonal fluctuation in body mass, which doubles in winter, meaning the requirement for positive mechanical work also fluctuates with season. We demonstrate that at the same degree of incline, the cost of lifting 1 kg by 1 vertical metre remains relatively constant between seasons despite the large differences in body mass from summer to winter. These findings are consistent with the notion that positive mechanical work alone dictates the cost of lifting above a certain body mass. However, our data indicate that this cost may vary according to the degree of incline and gait.

Understanding sex differences in the cost of terrestrial locomotion.

Little is known regarding the physiological consequences of the behavioural and morphological differences that result from sexual selection in birds. Male and female Svalbard rock ptarmigans (Lagopus muta hyperborea) exhibit distinctive behavioural differences during the breeding season. In particular, males continuously compete for and defend territories in order to breed successfully, placing large demands on their locomotor system. Here, we demonstrate that male birds have improved locomotor performance compared with females, showing both a lower cost of locomotion (CoL) and a higher top speed. We propose that the observed sex differences in locomotor capability may be due to sexual selection for improved male performance. While the mechanisms underlying these energetic differences are unclear, future studies should be wary when pooling male and female data.

Arctic reindeer extend their visual range into the ultraviolet.

The Arctic has extreme seasonal changes in light levels and is proportionally UV-rich because of scattering of the shorter wavelengths and their reflection from snow and ice. Here we show that the cornea and lens in Arctic reindeer do not block all UV and that the retina responds electrophysiologically to these wavelengths. Both rod and cone photoreceptors respond to UV at low-intensity stimulation. Retinal RNA extraction and in vitro opsin expression show that the response to UV is not mediated by a specific UV photoreceptor mechanism. Reindeer thus extend their visual range into the short wavelengths characteristic of the winter environment and periods of extended twilight present in spring and autumn. A specific advantage of this short-wavelength vision is the use of potential information caused by differential UV reflections known to occur in both Arctic vegetation and different types of snow. UV is normally highly damaging to the retina, resulting in photoreceptor degeneration. Because such damage appears not to occur in these animals, they may have evolved retinal mechanisms protecting against extreme UV exposure present in the daylight found in the snow-covered late winter environment.

Circadian organization in reindeer.

The light/dark cycle of day and night synchronizes an internal 'biological clock' that governs daily rhythms in behaviour, but this form of regulation is denied to polar animals for most of the year. Here we demonstrate that the continuous lighting conditions of summer and of winter at high latitudes cause a loss in daily rhythmic activity in reindeer living far above the Arctic Circle. This seasonal absence of circadian rhythmicity may be a ubiquitous trait among resident polar vertebrates.

Ambient temperature effects on photo induced gonadal cycles and hormonal secretion patterns in Great Tits from three different breeding latitudes.

The present study determines how populations of Great Tits (Parus major) breeding in southern, mid and northern European latitudes have adjusted their reproductive endocrinology to differences in the ambient temperature during the gonadal cycle. A study based on long-term breeding data, using the Colwell predictability model, showed that the start of the breeding season has a high predictability ( approximately 0.8-0.9) at all latitudes, and that the environmental information factor (I(e)) progressively decreased from mid Italy (I(e)>4) to northern Finland (I(e)<1). The results indicate that integration of supplementary information, such as ambient temperature, with photoperiodic initial predictive information (day length), becomes progressively more important in maintaining the predictability of the breeding season with decreasing latitude. This hypothesis was verified by exposing photosensitive Great Tits from northern Norway, southern Sweden and northern Italy to sub-maximal photo-stimulatory day lengths (13L:11D) under two different ambient temperature regimes (+4 degrees C and +20 degrees C). Changes in testicular size, plasma levels of LH and testosterone were measured. The main results were: (1) Initial testicular growth rate, as well as LH secretion, was affected by temperature in the Italian, but not in birds from the two Scandinavian populations. (2) Maximum testicular size, maximum LH and testosterone levels were maintained for a progressively shorter period of time with increasing latitude, regardless of whether the birds were kept on a low or a high ambient temperature. (3) In birds from all latitudes, the development of photorefractoriness, as indicated by testicular regression and a decrease in plasma levels of LH and testosterone, started much earlier (with the exception for LH Great Tits from northern Scandinavia) when kept on +20 degrees C than when kept on +4 degrees C. The prolonging effects of a low temperature was more pronounced in Mediterranean birds, than in birds from Scandinavia, and more pronounced in Great Tits from southern Scandinavia than in Great Tits from northern Scandinavia. Ecological implications of the results are discussed, as well as possible impact of global warming on the breeding success of European Great Tits from different breeding latitudes.

Behavioral Timing without Clockwork: Photoperiod-Dependent Trade-Off between Predation Hazard and Energy Balance in an Arctic Ungulate.

Occurrence of 24-h rhythms in species apparently lacking functional molecular clockwork indicates that strong circadian mechanisms are not essential prerequisites of robust timing, and that rhythmical patterns may arise instead as passive responses to periodically changing environmental stimuli. Thus, in a new synthesis of grazing in a ruminant (MINDY), crepuscular peaks of activity emerge from interactions between internal and external stimuli that influence motivation to feed, and the influence of the light/dark cycle is mediated through the effect of low nocturnal levels of food intake on gastric function. Drawing on risk allocation theory, we hypothesized that the timing of behavior in ruminants is influenced by the independent effects of light on motivation to feed and perceived risk of predation. We predicted that the antithetical relationship between these 2 drivers would vary with photoperiod, resulting in a systematic shift in the phase of activity relative to the solar cycle across the year. This prediction was formalized in a model in which phase of activity emerges from a photoperiod-dependent trade-off between food and safety. We tested this model using data on the temporal pattern of activity in reindeer/caribou Rangifer tarandus free-living at natural mountain pasture in sub-Arctic Norway. The resulting nonlinear relationship between the phasing of crepuscular activity and photoperiod, consistent with the model, suggests a mechanism for behavioral timing that is independent of the core circadian system. We anticipate that such timing depends on integration of metabolic feedback from the digestive system and the activity of the glucocorticoid axis which modulates the behavioral responses of the animal to environmental hazard. The hypothalamus is the obvious neural substrate to achieve this integration.

The eyes of the deep diving hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) enhance sensitivity to ultraviolet light.

The mammalian visual range is approximately 400-700 nm, although recent evidence suggests varying ultraviolet (UV) extensions in diverse terrestrial species. UV sensitivity may have advantages in the dim, blue light shifted environment experienced by submerged marine mammals. It may also be advantageous when seals are on land as UV is reflected by snow and ice but absorbed by fur, enhancing visual contrast. Here we show that the pelagic hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) has a highly UV permissive cornea and lens. Seals like other carnivores have a tapetum lucidum (TL) reflecting light back through the retina increasing sensitivity. The TL in this seal is unusual being white and covering almost the entire retina unlike that in other carnivores. Spectral reflectance from its surface selectively increases the relative UV/blue components >10 times than other wavelengths. Retinal architecture is consistent with a high degree of convergence. Enhanced UV from a large TL surface with a high degree of retinal convergence will increase sensitivity at a cost to acuity. UV electrophysiological retina responses were only obtained to dim, rod mediated stimuli, with no evidence of cone input. As physiological measurements of threshold sensitivity are much higher than those for psychophysical detection, these seals are likely to be more UV sensitive than our results imply. Hence, UV reflections from the TL will afford increased sensitivity in dim oceanic environments.

Food-anticipatory activity and liver per1-luc activity in diabetic transgenic rats.

The mammalian Per1 gene is an important component of the core cellular clock mechanism responsible for circadian rhythms. The rodent liver and other tissues rhythmically express Per1 in vitro but typically damp out within a few cycles. In the liver, the peak of this rhythm occurs in the late subjective night in an ad lib-fed rat, but will show a large phase advance in response to restricted availability of food during the day. The relationship between this shift in the liver clock and food-anticipatory activity (FAA), the circadian behavior entrained by daily feeding, is currently unknown. Insulin is released during feeding in mammals and could serve as an entraining signal to the liver. To test the role of insulin in the shift in liver Per1 expression and the generation of FAA, per-luciferase transgenic rats were made diabetic with a single injection of streptozotocine. Following 1 week of restricted feeding and locomotor activity monitoring, liver was collected for per-luc recording. In two separate experiments, FAA emerged and liver Per1 phase-shifted in response to daytime 8-h food restriction. The results rule out insulin as a necessary component of this system.

Reduced metabolic cost of locomotion in Svalbard rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta hyperborea) during winter.

The Svalbard rock ptarmigan, Lagopus muta hyperborea experiences extreme photoperiodic and climatic conditions on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. This species, however, is highly adapted to live in this harsh environment. One of the most striking adaptations found in these birds is the deposition, prior to onset of winter, of fat stores which may comprise up to 32% of body mass and are located primarily around the sternum and abdominal region. This fat, while crucial to the birds' survival, also presents a challenge in that the bird must maintain normal physiological function with this additional mass. In particular these stores are likely to constrain the respiratory system, as the sternum and pelvic region must be moved during ventilation and carrying this extra load may also impact upon the energetic cost of locomotion. Here we demonstrate that winter birds have a reduced cost of locomotion when compared to summer birds. A remarkable finding given that during winter these birds have almost twice the body mass of those in summer. These results suggest that Svalbard ptarmigan are able to carry the additional winter fat without incurring any energetic cost. As energy conservation is paramount to these birds, minimising the costs of moving around when resources are limited would appear to be a key adaptation crucial for their survival in the barren Arctic environment.

A circadian clock is not required in an arctic mammal.

Seasonally breeding mammals use the annual change in the photoperiod cycle to drive rhythmic nocturnal melatonin signals from the pineal gland, providing a critical cue to time seasonal reproduction. Paradoxically, species resident at high latitudes achieve tight regulation of the temporal pattern of growth and reproduction despite the absence of photoperiodic information for most of the year. In this study, we show that the melatonin rhythm of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) is acutely responsive to the light/dark cycle but not to circadian phase, and also that two key clock genes monitored in reindeer fibroblast cells display little, if any, circadian rhythmicity. The molecular clockwork that normally drives cellular circadian rhythms is evidently weak or even absent in this species, and instead, melatonin-mediated seasonal timing may be driven directly by photic information received at a limited time of year specific to the equinoxes.

Adaptations for life in the Arctic: evidence that melatonin rhythms in reindeer are not driven by a circadian oscillator but remain acutely sensitive to environmental photoperiod.

In reindeer Rangifer tarandus, a high latitude species, the rhythmic production of melatonin periodically dissipates under natural photoperiods when, in mid-winter, there is near permanent darkness and again, in summer, when there is permanent light. In spring and autumn, as expected, melatonin production reflects the ambient light:dark (LD) cycle. We investigated the expression of circadian mechanisms on blood levels of melatonin in reindeer. Two experiments were conducted in which animals were transferred from natural photic conditions into continuous darkness for 3 days: (i) in February, when they had been exposed to an LD cycle (11L:13D) and (ii) in July, when they had been exposed to permanent light. In July, plasma levels of melatonin rose abruptly on exposure to darkness but then declined over 24 hr before displaying a second rise and decline over the following 36 hr. In contrast, in February, levels of melatonin rose abruptly but then remained elevated for more than 60 hr in darkness. Melatonin secretion upon exposure to darkness did not conform to a circadian pattern and did not, therefore, support the hypothesis that pineal activity in reindeer is tightly regulated by circadian mechanisms. Instead the secretion of melatonin appeared to be acutely and directly sensitive to ambient lighting. The results are consistent with a model in which Arctic resident animals have adapted to extreme photic conditions by disconnecting the generation of the pineal melatonin signal from their circadian machinery and relying, instead, on its being driven by the LD cycle for just a few weeks annually in spring and autumn.

Where clocks are redundant: weak circadian mechanisms in reindeer living under polar photic conditions.

Biological rhythms are a result of interplay between endogenous clocks and the ambient light-dark (LD) cycle. Biological timing in resident polar organisms presents a conundrum because these experience distinct daily LD cycles for only a few weeks each year. We measured locomotor activity in reindeer, Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus (SR, n = 5 and 6) and R. tarandus tarandus (NR, n = 6), ranging freely at 78 and 70 degrees N, respectively, continuously throughout 1 year using data loggers. NR, but not SR, are gregarious which enabled us to examine the integrated effects of differences in social organisation and the photic environment at two different latitudes on the organisation of activity. In both sub-species, ultradian bouts of activity and inactivity alternated across the 24-h day throughout the year. This pattern was modified by the LD cycle in NR but barely at all in SR. Periodogram analysis revealed significant ultradian rhythmicity in both sub-species; the frequency of daily cycles of activity increased from three per day in winter to nearly five in summer. We conclude that this increase, and a concomitant increase in the level of daily activity, reflected the seasonal increase in the animals' appetite and the quality of their forage. Secondly, the combination, most evident in SR, of a weak photic response, weak circadian mechanisms and a weak social synchronization reduces the constraints of biological timing in an environment which is effectively non-rhythmic most of the year and permits expression of the basic ultradian pattern of ruminant activity. Third, the weaker 24-h rhythmicity in SR compared to NR indicates a latitudinal decrease in circadian organization and photic responsiveness in Rangifer.

Quantitative differences in the pineal ultrastructure of perinatal and adult harp (Phoca groenlandica) and hooded seals (Cystophora cristata).

Seals are unique among mammals in that newborns have a large pineal gland and extremely high plasma levels of melatonin at birth. Melatonin levels are also high in the seal fetus but decline rapidly during the first few days of life. The aim of the present study was to provide quantitative information about the ultrastructure of the seal pineal gland using fetal, newborn, and adult hooded seals (Cystophora cristata), and newborn and adult harp seals (Phoca groenlandica). The relative and absolute volumes of pinealocytes (Pi), arteries and veins, nerves, connective tissue, capillaries and glial cells, as well as mitocondria and lipid droplets in Pi, were calculated by use of point count analysis. Whereas the pineal ultrastructure was similar in fetuses and newborns, both seal species showed a pronounced and particular reduction in the volume of Pi and a similar reduction in pinealocyte mitochondria. There was also a shift from unmyelinated to myelinated pineal nerves in adults compared with fetal/newborns. The selective and marked reduction of Pi may explain the zonated pineal structure typical of the adult seal. The results demonstrate that the fetal gland is as large and active as that of the newborn seal and support the notion that the large size and high activity of the pineal gland in the newborn seal is a fading consequence of its prenatal condition.

Melatonin reduces noradrenaline-induced vasoconstriction in the uterine artery of pregnant hooded seals (Cystophora cristata).

In pregnant seals the dive-associated constriction of the uterine artery is inhibited for unknown reasons. The seal fetus has an extremely large and active pineal gland, not found in any other mammals. We have investigated if the pineal hormone melatonin affects fetal blood supply during diving. Using isolated ring segments of the uterine artery from pregnant hooded seals (Cystophora cristata), we measured the change in isometric tension caused by noradrenaline (NA) with and without physiological concentrations of melatonin. Melatonin alone had no effects while NA increased the tension in a dose-dependent manner. The NA-induced tension was about 70% reduced by melatonin, but was completely recovered after washout of melatonin. These results indicate that the large and active pineal gland of the fetal seal may be involved in upholding maternal uterine blood flow during diving.