Meeting Abstract
Circadian rhythms are controlled by an internal clock and are molecular, physiological, or behavioral events that occur predictably. The conservation of such rhythms in a variety of plants and animals suggests that circadian clocks help organisms to anticipate and synchronize to daily environmental changes, providing tremendous adaptive advantage. The prevalence and variability of circadian rhythms in slipper lobsters remains understudied and elusive. Slipper lobsters Scyllarides spp. are highly cryptic, but sometimes gregarious animals that shelter in a variety of both soft (sand) and hard (caves) habitats with minimal light. The primary goal of this work is to provide better resolution of activity patterns during light-dark cycles in juvenile tropical slipper lobsters and to examine two scenarios that may prompt changes to their overall activity and associated circadian rhythms. First, we evaluated the activity patterns and circadian rhythms for lobsters in group-settings (n = 3-4) versus those kept individually (n = 6) to test the hypothesis that social behavior has an effect on activity patterns. Second, we simulated predation pressure to assess if these cues modulate lobster behavior, thereby altering their circadian clock. These lab-based studies were assessed using a combination of time-lapse video along with actogram and periodogram analyses. These ongoing studies will contribute a better understanding of some of the factors that initiate and potentially alter activity patterns and modify circadian rhythms in lobsters. Our results may also provide correlates for other animal-based models of circadian behavior.
