Dominoni, D.M.; Åkesson, S.; Klaassen, R.; Spoelstra, K.; Bulla, M. (2017). Methods in field chronobiology. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. (B Biol. Sci.) 372(1734): 20160247. https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0247
In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences. Royal Society: London. ISSN 0962-8436; e-ISSN 1471-2970, more
Chronobiological research has seen a continuous development of novelapproaches and techniques to measure rhythmicity at different levels of biologicalorganization from locomotor activity (e.g. migratory restlessness) tophysiology (e.g. temperature and hormone rhythms, and relatively recentlyalso in genes, proteins and metabolites). However, the methodologicaladvancements in this field have been mostly and sometimes exclusively usedonly in indoor laboratory settings. In parallel, there has been an unprecedentedand rapid improvement in our ability to track animals and their behaviour inthe wild. However, while the spatial analysis of tracking data is widespread,its temporal aspect is largely unexplored. Here, we review the tools that areavailable or have potential to record rhythms in thewild animals with emphasison currently overlooked approaches and monitoring systems. We thendemonstrate, in three question-driven case studies, how the integration oftraditional and newer approaches can help answer novel chronobiologicalquestions in free-living animals. Finally, we highlight unresolved issues infield chronobiology that may benefit from technological development in thefuture. As most of the studies in the field are descriptive, the future challengelies in applying the diverse technologies to experimental set-ups in the wild.This article is part of the themed issue ‘Wild clocks: integratingchronobiology and ecology to understand timekeeping in free-living animals’.
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