Abstract
Almost all vertebrates display some form of seasonality across their life cycle that requires profound cyclical adaptations in behaviour, physiology and morphology. These are fundamentally controlled by neuroendocrine processes, since it is the brain that senses the environment and co-ordinates seasonality through endocrine and autonomic outputs. This chapter briefly considers how seasonality may impact upon our own species, then provides an introduction to these seasonal processes, considering landmark discoveries and advances in understanding from a historical perspective. It discusses how much of the initial focus was on the direct effects of changing photoperiod on seasonal timing, but how more recent long-term experimental studies have identified innate circannual timers. Seasonal rhythms arise from the interaction of direct photoperiodic effects and circannual rhythms, and timing can also be modified by proximate environmental and social cues; the relative contribution of these processes reflecting the lifespan and environmental ecology of each species.
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Further Recommended Reading
Bartness TJ, Powers JB, Hastings MH, Bittman EL, Goldman BD (1993) The timed infusion paradigm for melatonin delivery: what has it taught us about the melatonin signal, its reception and the photoperiodic control of seasonal responses. J Pineal Res 15:161–190. Review of studies on how melatonin conveys timing information to the neuroendocrine system.
Hanon EA, Lincoln GA, Fustin JM, Dardente H, Masson-Pevet M, Morgan PJ, Hazlerigg DG (2008) Ancestral TSH mechanism signals summer in a photoperiodic mammal. Curr Biol 18:1147–1152. Outstanding research paper demonstrating the importance in seasonal timing of signalling via the pars tuberalis to hypothalamic tanycytes.
Hazlerigg DG, Lincoln GA (2011) Hypothesis: cyclical histogenesis is the basis of circannual timing. J Biol Rhythm 26:471–485. Review that considers how circannual rhythmicity might arise from cellular changes in the pars tuberalis.
Lincoln G (2019) A brief history of circannual time. J Neuroendocrinol 31(3):e12694. https://doi.org/10.1111/jne.12694. Very recent review discussing the nature of circannual rhythms and their underlying mechanistic basis.
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Lincoln, G.A., Ebling, F.J.P. (2020). Photoperiodism and Circannual Timing: Introduction and Historical Perspective. In: Ebling, F.J.P., Piggins, H.D. (eds) Neuroendocrine Clocks and Calendars. Masterclass in Neuroendocrinology, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55643-3_1
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