Biomaterial Database

Entrainment of bimodal circatidal rhythms in the shore crab Carcinus maenas. 1990

D G Reid, and E Naylor

School of Ocean Sciences, University College of North Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd, United Kingdom.

Individuals of the shore crab Carcinus maenas were exposed to artificial cycles, applied in tidal antiphase, of pairs of the three major environmental variables that entrain circatidal rhythmicity in this species: salinity, temperature, and hydrostatic pressure. During entrainment, the observed locomotor activity patterns were dominated by exogenous responses to high pressure, low temperature, or low salinity. In subsequent constant conditions, many of the crabs showed bimodal circatidal rhythms, with peaks phased to the times of expected high-tide characteristics of high pressure, low temperature, or high salinity. Similar bimodal rhythms were induced by exposing freshly captured crabs, with free-running circatidal rhythms, to tidal antiphase cycles of each of the three environmental variables applied individually. The hypothesis that circatidal rhythmicity in this species is controlled by at least two separate circatidal oscillators, with differential sensitivities to specific cyclical environmental variables, is discussed.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D009043	Motor Activity	Body movements of a human or an animal as a behavioral phenomenon.	Activities, Motor,Activity, Motor,Motor Activities
D002940	Circadian Rhythm	The regular recurrence, in cycles of about 24 hours, of biological processes or activities, such as sensitivity to drugs or environmental and physiological stimuli.	Diurnal Rhythm,Nyctohemeral Rhythm,Twenty-Four Hour Rhythm,Nycthemeral Rhythm,Circadian Rhythms,Diurnal Rhythms,Nycthemeral Rhythms,Nyctohemeral Rhythms,Rhythm, Circadian,Rhythm, Diurnal,Rhythm, Nycthemeral,Rhythm, Nyctohemeral,Rhythm, Twenty-Four Hour,Rhythms, Circadian,Rhythms, Diurnal,Rhythms, Nycthemeral,Rhythms, Nyctohemeral,Rhythms, Twenty-Four Hour,Twenty Four Hour Rhythm,Twenty-Four Hour Rhythms
D003386	Brachyura	An infraorder of chiefly marine, largely carnivorous CRUSTACEA, in the order DECAPODA, including the genera Cancer, Uca, and Callinectes.	Blue Crab,Callinectes sapidus,Carcinus maenas,Crab, Blue,Crab, Common Shore,Crab, Green,Crabs, Short-Tailed,Crabs, True,Green Crab,Uca,Common Shore Crab,European Shore Crab,Blue Crabs,Brachyuras,Carcinus maena,Common Shore Crabs,Crab, European Shore,Crab, Short-Tailed,Crab, True,Crabs, Blue,Crabs, Common Shore,Crabs, Green,Crabs, Short Tailed,Green Crabs,Shore Crab, Common,Shore Crab, European,Shore Crabs, Common,Short-Tailed Crab,Short-Tailed Crabs,True Crab,True Crabs,Ucas,maenas, Carcinus
D006874	Hydrostatic Pressure	The pressure due to the weight of fluid.	Hydrostatic Pressures,Pressure, Hydrostatic,Pressures, Hydrostatic
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D012623	Seawater	The salinated water of OCEANS AND SEAS that provides habitat for marine organisms.	Sea Water,Sea Waters,Seawaters,Water, Sea,Waters, Sea
D012965	Sodium Chloride	A ubiquitous sodium salt that is commonly used to season food.	Sodium Chloride, (22)Na,Sodium Chloride, (24)NaCl
D013696	Temperature	The property of objects that determines the direction of heat flow when they are placed in direct thermal contact. The temperature is the energy of microscopic motions (vibrational and translational) of the particles of atoms.	Temperatures