ArticleScientific reports2022
Integrated molecular and behavioural data reveal deep circadian disruption in response to artificial light at night in male Great tits (Parus major).
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Artificial Light at Night Consistently Impacts Avian Physiology and Behaviour: A Meta-Analysis.Ecology letters · 2026Pooled it
- The ecological importance of natural dark nights for circadian organization, metabolism and reproduction in birds.BMC ecology and evolution · 2026Review
- Dietary melatonin supplementation mitigates the negative effects of artificial light at night in the Pacific field cricket,Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Sexually dimorphic and clock gene-specific effects of artificial light at night onProceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Urban effects on timing and variability of diel activity differ across passerine species and seasons.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Ecology of timekeeping: feeding times effect clock-controlled behavior, metabolism and reproduction in diurnal vertebrates.Npj biological timing and sleep · 2025Review
- Partial night lighting may reduce the physiological impact of artificial light at night on captive zebra finches.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- Dimly illuminated nights alter behavior and negatively affect fat metabolism in adult male zebra finches.Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology · 2024Article
- Endocrine-circadian interactions in birds: implications when nights are no longer dark.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Artificial light at night suppresses the day-night cardiovascular variability: evidence from humans and rats.Pflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology · 2024Review
- Time is of the essence: The importance of considering biological rhythms in an increasingly polluted world.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Cities of the Anthropocene: urban sustainability in an eco-evolutionary perspective.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Experimental light at night explains differences in activity onset between urban and forest great tits.Biology letters · 2023Article
- Ingrained city rhythms: flexible activity timing but more persistent circadian pace in urban birds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Exposure to a nocturnal light pulse simultaneously and differentially affects stridulation and locomotion behaviors in crickets.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- Transcriptional Response of Circadian Clock Genes to an 'Artificial Light at Night' Pulse in the CricketInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Globally increasing levels of artificial light at night (ALAN) are associated with shifting rhythms of behaviour in many wild species. However, it is unclear whether changes in behavioural timing are paralleled by consistent shifts in the molecular clock and its associated physiological pathways. Inconsistent shifts between behavioural and molecular rhythms, and between different tissues and physiological systems, disrupt the circadian system, which coordinates all major body functions. We therefore compared behavioural, transcriptional and metabolomic responses of captive great tits (Parus major) to three ALAN intensities or to dark nights, recording activity and sampling brain, liver, spleen and blood at mid-day and midnight. ALAN advanced wake-up time, and this shift was paralleled by advanced expression of the clock gene BMAL1 in all tissues, suggesting close links between behaviour and clock gene expression across tissues. However, further analysis of gene expression and metabolites revealed that clock shifts were inconsistent across physiological systems. Untargeted metabolomic profiling showed that only 9.7% of the 755 analysed metabolites followed the behavioural shift. This high level of desynchronization indicates that ALAN disrupted the circadian system on a deep, easily overlooked level. Thus, circadian disruption could be a key mediator of health impacts of ALAN on wild animals.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.