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Many species synchronize their physiology and behavior to specific hours. It is commonly assumed that sunlight acts as the main entrainment signal for ∼24-h clocks. However, the moon provides similarly regular time information. Consistently, a growing number of studies have reported correlations between diel behavior and lunidian cycles. Yet, mechanistic insight into the possible influences of the moon on ∼24-h timers remains scarce. We have explored the marine bristleworm Platynereis dumerilii to investigate the role of moonlight in the timing of daily behavior. We uncover that moonlight, besides its role in monthly timing, also schedules the exact hour of nocturnal swarming onset to the nights’ darkest times. Our work reveals that extended moonlight impacts on a plastic clock that exhibits <24 h (moonlit) or >24 h (no moon) periodicity. Abundance, light sensitivity, and genetic requirement indicate that the Platynereis light receptor molecule r-Opsin1 serves as a receptor that senses moonrise, whereas the cryptochrome protein L-Cry is required to discriminate the proper valence of nocturnal light as either moonlight or sunlight. Comparative experiments in Drosophila suggest that cryptochrome’s principle requirement for light valence interpretation is conserved. Its exact biochemical properties differ, however, between species with dissimilar timing ecology. Our work advances the molecular understanding of lunar impact on fundamental rhythmic processes, including those of marine mass spawners endangered by anthropogenic change.

Many reef-building corals participate in a mass-spawning event that occurs yearly on the Great Barrier Reef. This coral reproductive event is one of earth's most prominent examples of synchronised behavior, and coral reproductive success is vital to the persistence of coral reef ecosystems. Although several environmental cues have been implicated in the timing of mass spawning, the specific sensory cues that function together with endogenous clock mechanisms to ensure accurate timing of gamete release are largely unknown. Here, we show that moonlight is an important external stimulus for mass spawning synchrony and describe the potential mechanisms underlying the ability of corals to detect environmental triggers for the signaling cascades that ultimately result in gamete release. Our study increases the understanding of reproductive chronobiology in corals and strongly supports the hypothesis that coral gamete release is achieved by a complex array of potential neurohormones and light-sensing molecules. Sexual reproduction in corals is possibly the most important process for replenishing degraded coral reefs. Most corals are “broadcast spawners” that reproduce by releasing their egg cells and sperm cells into the sea water surface. To maximize their chances of reproductive success, most coral in the Great Barrier Reef – over 130 species – spawn on the same night, during a time window that is approximately 30-60 minutes long. This is the largest-scale mass spawning event of coral in the world, and is triggered by changes in sea water temperature, tides, sunrise and sunset and by the intensity of the moonlight. How corals tune their spawning behavior with the phases of the moonlight was an unanswered question for decades. Now, Kaniewska, Alon et al. have exposed the coral Acropora millepora – which makes up part of the Great Barrier Reef – to different light treatments and sampled the corals before, during and after their spawning periods. This revealed that light causes changes to gene expression and signaling processes inside cells. These changes are specifically related to the release of egg and sperm cells, and occur only on the night of spawning. Furthermore, by exposing corals to light conditions that mimic artificial urban “light pollution”, Kaniewska, Alon et al. caused a mismatch in certain cellular signaling processes that prevented the corals from spawning. Reducing the exposure of corals to artificial lighting could therefore help to protect and regenerate coral reefs. Future work will involve comparing these results with information about a coral species from another part of the world to investigate whether there is a universal mechanism used by corals to control when they spawn.

The two most common kissing bugs, Triatoma rubida and T. protracta, in the Sonoran Desert around Tucson, Arizona are hematophagous vectors of Chagas disease and can induce potentially life-threatening allergic reactions. They were surveyed during their summer dispersal flight period to determine which environmental factors are correlated with flight activity. The two most important factors governing flights of T.rubida were temperatures in the range of 26–35 °C and wind speeds below 14 km/h (9 miles/h). Flights were reduced below or above those temperatures, or when wind speeds exceeding 14km/h. Relative humidity and presence or absence of moonshine appeared unimportant. During their dispersal flight periods of May through July and, especially, between the peak of the flight season, 20 June to 5 July, biologists seeking to collect bugs and homeowners wishing to exclude these biting bugs from entering their homes should be most attentive during evenings of average temperature and low wind speed.

Breast cancer is very prevalent and because of its death rate is taken into deliberation to be the second dangerous disease in the world. There is a relentless effort to create more effective techniques for an early and reliable diagnosis. Classical approaches require oncologists to investigate breast lesions to detect and classify different cancer stages. Such manual attempts in many cases are time-consuming and inefficient. Hence there is a requirement for effective methods to diagnose cancer cells with high accuracy without human involvement. A \"Moon Phase Wavelet Chain Rule Model\" has been proposed in this research we introduced Moon Light Dimming Illumination Technique and Smart Recon Techniques. Thus, it overcomes the dense mass accumulation by providing a clear view of fat density, heterogeneous density, tumour size and thus it reduces the beam hardening problems. Our work has initiated Modified Segmented Stationary Wavelet Transform and Multivariable Chain Rule-Based Back Propagation Neural Network, to improvised the features extraction and classifying the phases of breast cancer by avoiding the under and overfitting problems. The proposed model reduces the dense mass accumulation, beam hardening, and obtains a segmented feature image for feature extraction.The Accuracy, Sensitivity, Specificity, Recall, Precision, prevalence performances of 98.62%, 98.25%, 97.52%, 98.25%, 97.25%, and 25.03% respectively. Hence, the outcome of the proposed model has been showing that our system is a promising and robust method for detecting breast cancer.

Species are commonly described as either diurnal or nocturnal, with rare reports of deviations outside their normal activity period. Observations of nocturnal activity by diurnal Anolis are limited to lizards utilizing anthropogenic light sources (night-light niche) to prolong their daily activity period. Here, we report nocturnal activity by Anolis cristatellus facilitated solely by natural moonlight and discuss implications for when this behavior would be recognized as common in the future. The identification of nocturnal activity in Anolis is particularly noteworthy given, in contrast to other taxa, our extensive knowledge of this study system which will allow for future ecological studies to better test hypotheses.

Moonlight alters the expression of a number of genes in coral cells in order to synchronize the release of sex cells across different coral species.

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Methods and approaches Troubleshooting References

Simons, A.L.; Martin, K.L.M., and Longcore, T., 2022. Determining the effects of artificial light at night on the distributions of Western Snowy Plovers (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) and California Grunion (Leuresthes tenuis) in southern California. Journal of Coastal Research, 38(2), 302–309. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. This study covers the role of exposure to artificial light at night (ALAN) in shaping the spatial distributions of two species of conservation concern, roosting sites of the Western Snowy Plover and locations of California Grunion spawning runs, along the coast of southern California. Observational data on plover and grunions, derived from community science sources, were obtained along with remotely sensed environmental measurements along the coast of southern California. The study area comprises a 1.5 km wide coastal strip, bounded by the mean low-tide line, and stretching from 10 km north of the northern Ventura County line to 10 km south of the southern Orange County line. These data were used as inputs within three species distribution models: a generalized linear model, Maxent, and random forest. Exposure to ALAN was based on a ground-verified model of night sky illuminance. In the highest performing models, which used random forest modeling, exposure to ALAN was the most important environmental factor influencing distribution of grunion runs and second-most important factor for plover roosts. Significant declines were found in the likelihood of plovers roosting in locations where exposure to ALAN exceeded illuminance levels equivalent to that produced by approximately one half a full moon and for grunion spawning at one full moon. Disruption of behaviors related to reproduction, roosting, and spawning associated with elevated levels of ALAN are likely a result of increased predation risk in illuminated coastal areas. With evidence of ALAN providing significant ecological disturbances to these two managed species, it is therefore recommended that control of nighttime illumination be used, even at naturalistic intensities, to mitigate disturbances to critical reproductive coastal habitats and potentially other environments.

Diurnal and nocturnal African dung beetles use celestial cues, such as the sun, the moon, and the polarization pattern, to roll dung balls along straight paths across the savanna. Although nocturnal beetles move in the same manner through the same environment as their diurnal relatives, they do so when light conditions are at least 1 million-fold dimmer. Here, we show, for the first time to our knowledge, that the celestial cue preference differs between nocturnal and diurnal beetles in a manner that reflects their contrasting visual ecologies. We also demonstrate how these cue preferences are reflected in the activity of compass neurons in the brain. At night, polarized skylight is the dominant orientation cue for nocturnal beetles. However, if we coerce them to roll during the day, they instead use a celestial body (the sun) as their primary orientation cue. Diurnal beetles, however, persist in using a celestial body for their compass, day or night. Compass neurons in the central complex of diurnal beetles are tuned only to the sun, whereas the same neurons in the nocturnal species switch exclusively to polarized light at lunar light intensities. Thus, these neurons encode the preferences for particular celestial cues and alter their weighting according to ambient light conditions. This flexible encoding of celestial cue preferences relative to the prevailing visual scenery provides a simple, yet effective, mechanism for enabling visual orientation at any light intensity.

Coral broadcast spawning events - in which gametes are released on certain nights predictably in relation to lunar cycles - are critical to the maintenance and recovery of coral reefs following mass mortality. Artificial light at night (ALAN) from coastal and offshore developments threatens coral reef health by masking natural light:dark cycles that synchronize broadcast spawning. Using a recently published atlas of underwater light pollution, we analyze a global dataset of 2135 spawning observations from the 21 st century. For the majority of genera, corals exposed to light pollution are spawning between one and three days closer to the full moon compared to those on unlit reefs. ALAN possibly advances the trigger for spawning by creating a perceived period of minimum illuminance between sunset and moonrise on nights following the full moon. Advancing the timing of mass spawning could decrease the probability of gamete fertilization and survival, with clear implications for ecological processes involved in the resilience of reef systems. This global analysis reveals that artificial light from cities is associated with the disruption of synchronised egg release by corals. This situation could reduce coral reproductive health, hindering conservation efforts in the face of climate change and other anthropogenic impacts.