Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• de Mello Gallep, Cristiano
• Robert, Daniel
• Poppinga, Simon

Titel

Are cyclic plant and animal behaviours driven by gravimetric mechanical forces?

Ist Teil von

• Journal of experimental botany, 2022-02, Vol.73 (4), p.1093-1103

Ort / Verlag

UK: Oxford University Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Abstract The celestial mechanics of the Sun, Moon, and Earth dominate the variations in gravitational force that all matter, live or inert, experiences on Earth. Expressed as gravimetric tides, these variations are pervasive and have forever been part of the physical ecology with which organisms evolved. Here, we first offer a brief review of previously proposed explanations that gravimetric tides constitute a tangible and potent force shaping the rhythmic activities of organisms. Through meta-analysis, we then interrogate data from three study cases and show the close association between the omnipresent gravimetric tides and cyclic activity. As exemplified by free-running cyclic locomotor activity in isopods, reproductive effort in coral, and modulation of growth in seedlings, biological rhythms coincide with temporal patterns of the local gravimetric tide. These data reveal that, in the presumed absence of rhythmic cues such as light and temperature, local gravimetric tide is sufficient to entrain cyclic behaviour. The present evidence thus questions the phenomenological significance of so-called free-run experiments. The rhythmic activity of biological organisms is proposed to be closely associated with the gravimetric tides generated by the orbital mechanics of the Sun–Moon–Earth system.