Christopher C. Chabot

Plymouth State University

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Winsor H. Watson

University of New Hampshire at Manchester

Steven H. Jury

Saint Joseph's College of Maine

Helen Cheng

NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Northeast Fisheries Science Center

Rebecca L. Anderson

Plymouth State University

Douglas H. Taylor

Miami University

Henrik Oster

University of Lübeck

Shaon Chakrabarti

National Centre for Biological Sciences

Erik Maronde

Goethe University Frankfurt

Seth J Davis

University of York

Jeanette H. Huber

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

Cooperative Institutions

Plymouth State University

University of New Hampshire

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

Northeastern University

Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

University of New Hampshire at Manchester

University of Manitoba

Saint Joseph's College of Maine

University of Cambridge

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Sensory biology and behaviour

Elsevier eBooks (2023)

Steven H. Jury Christopher C. Chabot Jason S. Goldstein Steffen Harzsch

Carcinus maenas

Stimulus modality

Neuroanatomy

Neuroethology

10.1016/b978-0-323-99694-5.00004-0

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Citations (2)

High resolution tracking of adult horseshoe crabs Limulus polyphemus in a New Hampshire estuary using fixed array ultrasonic telemetry

Current Zoology (2010)

Winsor H. Watson Christopher C. Chabot

Abstract While several studies have documented the large-scale, seasonal movements of horseshoe crabs, little is known about their fine-scale, daily movement patterns. In this study we used a fixed array ultrasonic telemetry system to track the movements of 12 male and 16 female horseshoe crabs in the Great Bay estuary, New Hampshire. Data were obtained during the mating season, as well as during the remainder of the summer and fall, in the years 2005-2008. During the mating season animals were often, but not always, active during the high tides when they were approaching and leaving the spawning beaches. On average, both males and females approached mating beaches during 33% of the high tides they experienced and they most often made the transition from being inactive to active during the last two hours of an incoming tide. From April-October horseshoe crabs were significantly more active during high tide periods vs low tide periods, with no clear preference for diurnal vs nocturnal activity. After the mating season ended horseshoe crabs continued to move into shallower water at high tide and then return to deeper water at low tide. Observations by SCUBA divers suggest that during these excursions into the mudflats horseshoe crabs were digging pits in the sediment while foraging for food. Thus, the tidal rhythm of activity that has been so well documented during the mating season probably persists into the fall, and primarily involves foraging activities.

Horseshoe crab

Callinectes

Polyphemus

10.1093/czoolo/56.5.599

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Citations (45)

Reflections on Several Landmark Advances in Circadian Biology

Journal of Circadian Rhythms (2024)

Sangeeta Chawla Henrik Oster Giles E. Duffield Erik Maronde Mario E. Guido

Circadian Biology intersects with diverse scientific domains, intricately woven into the fabric of organismal physiology and behavior. The rhythmic orchestration of life by the circadian clock serves as a focal point for researchers across disciplines. This retrospective examination delves into several of the scientific milestones that have fundamentally shaped our contemporary understanding of circadian rhythms. From deciphering the complexities of clock genes at a cellular level to exploring the nuances of coupled oscillators in whole organism responses to stimuli. The field has undergone significant evolution lately guided by genetics approaches. Our exploration here considers key moments in the circadian-research landscape, elucidating the trajectory of this discipline with a keen eye on scientific advancements and paradigm shifts.

Orchestration

10.5334/jcr.236

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The effects of water pressure, temperature, and current cycles on circatidal rhythms expressed by the American horseshoe crab,Limulus polyphemus

Marine and Freshwater Behaviour and Physiology (2010)

Christopher C. Chabot Jeffrey F. Yelle Conor B. O’Donnell Winsor H. Watson

The American horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, expresses tidal rhythms of locomotion that can be entrained to cyclic fluctuations in water depth, but the ability of other tidal cues to entrain locomotor activity has not been assessed. In this study, tidal inundation cycles of ∼12.4 h delivered in the laboratory clearly entrained the locomotor patterns of most animals. However, smaller amplitude water level fluctuations and large amplitude temperature cycles (10°C) were less successful while small-amplitude temperature fluctuations (3°C) and current cycles (0.3 m s−1) were unsuccessful. In the field, animals confined to modified running wheels expressed rhythms of locomotor activity that were clearly synchronized with the tides, but only if they were allowed to experience water level changes. Overall, these results suggest a hierarchy among potential tidal entrainment cues: inundation and water level changes are of primary importance, while other factors such as current and temperature changes appear to play secondary roles.

Horseshoe crab

Entrainment (biomusicology)

Polyphemus

Tidal current

10.1080/10236244.2010.541992

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Citations (23)

Daily and circadian rhythms of locomotor activity in the American lobster, Homarus americanus

Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology (2005)

Steven H. Jury Christopher C. Chabot Winsor H. Watson

American lobster

10.1016/j.jembe.2004.12.006

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Citations (47)

Rhythms of Locomotion Expressed byLimulus polyphemus,the American Horseshoe Crab: I. Synchronization by Artificial Tides

Biological Bulletin (2008)

Christopher C. Chabot Stephen J. Skinner Winsor H. Watson

Limulus polyphemus, the American horseshoe crab, has an endogenous clock that drives circatidal rhythms of locomotor activity. In this study, we examined the ability of artificial tides to entrain the locomotor rhythms of Limulus in the laboratory. In experiments one and two, the activity of 16 individuals of L. polyphemus was monitored with activity boxes and "running wheels." When the crabs were exposed to artificial tides created by changes in water depth, circatidal rhythms were observed in animals exposed to 12.4-h "tidal" cycles of either water depth changes (8 of 8 animals) or inundation (7 of 8 animals). In experiment three, an additional 8 animals were exposed to water depth changes under cyclic conditions of light and dark and then monitored for 10 days with no imposed artificial tides. Most animals (5) clearly synchronized their activity to the imposed artificial tidal cycles, and 3 of these animals showed clear evidence of entrainment after the artificial tides were terminated. Overall, these results demonstrate that the endogenous tidal clock that influences locomotion in Limulus can be entrained by imposed artificial tides. In the laboratory, these tidal cues override the influence of light/dark cycles. In their natural habitat, where both tidal and photoperiod inputs are typically always present, their activity rhythms are likely to be much more complex.

Horseshoe crab

Polyphemus

Entrainment (biomusicology)

10.2307/25470681

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Citations (37)

Timely Questions Emerging in Chronobiology: The Circadian Clock Keeps on Ticking

Journal of Circadian Rhythms (2024)

Sangeeta Chawla John S. O’Neill Marina I. Knight Yuqing He Lei Wang

Chronobiology investigations have revealed much about cellular and physiological clockworks but we are far from having a complete mechanistic understanding of the physiological and ecological implications. Here we present some unresolved questions in circadian biology research as posed by the editorial staff and guest contributors to the Journal of Circadian Rhythms. This collection of ideas is not meant to be comprehensive but does reveal the breadth of our observations on emerging trends in chronobiology and circadian biology. It is amazing what could be achieved with various expected innovations in technologies, techniques, and mathematical tools that are being developed. We fully expect strengthening mechanistic work will be linked to health care and environmental understandings of circadian function. Now that most clock genes are known, linking these to physiological, metabolic, and developmental traits requires investigations from the single molecule to the terrestrial ecological scales. Real answers are expected for these questions over the next decade. Where are the circadian clocks at a cellular level? How are clocks coupled cellularly to generate organism level outcomes? How do communities of circadian organisms rhythmically interact with each other? In what way does the natural genetic variation in populations sculpt community behaviors? How will methods development for circadian research be used in disparate academic and commercial endeavors? These and other questions make it a very exciting time to be working as a chronobiologist.

Chronobiology

Human physiology

Biological clock

10.5334/jcr.237

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Citations (3)

The use of alternative spawning habitats by the American horseshoe crab,Limulus polyphemus

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (2022)

Daniel A. Sasson Christopher C. Chabot Jennifer Mattei Michael R. Kendrick Jeffrey F. Brunson

Abstract For animals that develop externally, habitats where environmental conditions are optimal for embryonic development are sometimes assumed to represent the highest recruitment potential and thus support the majority of reproductive output for a species. However, organisms may spawn in areas considered sub-optimal for embryonic development. Thus, understanding spawning habitat selection decisions and their potential impacts on recruitment and ecological interactions is necessary for predicting population status and identifying critical habitats to inform sustainable conservation decisions and effective management approaches. The American horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus , is ecologically, economically, and biomedically important. Females come ashore to spawn in the sediment where eggs develop for 2 – 4 weeks. Horseshoe crabs have been thought to primarily use sandy beach habitat for spawning in part because this habitat has been shown to be optimal for embryonic development. Horseshoe crab eggs on sandy beaches are an essential part of the diet of many organisms, including shorebirds such as the rufa red knot which requires the eggs to fuel their migration to arctic spawning grounds. While horseshoe crabs have been observed spawning in alternative habitats such as salt marshes and peat beds, this behavior has been assumed to be rare and non-adaptive. In this study, we compare the use of beach and alternative habitats by horseshoe crabs for spawning. To do so, we conducted adult horseshoe crab spawning surveys and horseshoe crab egg surveys in beach and Spartina -dominated salt marsh alternative habitats in South Carolina, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, U.S.A. While spawning horseshoe crabs were more likely to be observed on beach habitats than in alternative habitats, potentially due to logistical constraints surveying alternative habitats, we found similar densities of spawning horseshoe crabs in both habitat types. We also tended to find more eggs in alternative habitats than on beaches. Taken together, these results suggest that alternative habitats likely represent a significant source of horseshoe crab spawning activity and recruitment that had not previously been quantified. We recommend this information be incorporated into horseshoe crab population assessments, habitat protections, and more directed research at understanding variability in habitat-specific horseshoe crab spawning and its relationship to migratory shorebirds.

Horseshoe crab

Salt marsh

Polyphemus

Spawn (biology)

10.1101/2022.04.12.488058

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Citations (1)

Circadian Feeding and Locomotor Rhythms in Pigeons and House Sparrows

Journal of Biological Rhythms (1992)

Christopher C. Chabot Michael Menaker

Feeding and locomotor activities were measured simultaneously in homing pigeons (Columba livia) and house sparrows (Passer domesticus). Feeding, as well as locomotor activity, was found to be regulated by a circadian clock in both of these species. Implantation of melatonin-filled capsules or exposure to constant light abolished feeding and locomotor rhythms in both species. Removal of the pineal gland from pigeons did not abolish either rhythm, whereas pinealectomy abolished both feeding and locomotor rhythms in house sparrows. Although feeding rhythms were generally more robust than locomotor rhythms in both of these species, different feeding and locomotor free-running periods were not observed within any individual pigeon or house sparrow. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that each of these species has a single pacemaker that regulates the timing of feeding and locomotor activity, but they do not rule out the possibility that separate clocks regulate these behaviors.

Locomotor activity

Pinealectomy

10.1177/074873049200700403

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Citations (42)

Entrainment of juvenile horseshoe crab activity to artificial tides

Marine and Freshwater Behaviour and Physiology (2017)

Elizabeth A. Dubofsky-Porter Christopher C. Chabot Winsor H. Watson

Juvenile American horseshoe crabs, Limulus polyphemus, express both daily and tidal rhythms. To determine if, and how, tidal cues influence the expression of these rhythms, we exposed 25 animals to artificial tides, and 17 to artificial tides with inundation, both with a 12:12 LD cycle. In the first experiment, 24% expressed daily rhythms of activity, 24% tidal rhythms, 12% a combination of the two, and the rest were arrhythmic. Under subsequent atidal conditions some expressed daily rhythms, but more were circatidal. In the second experiment, 6% expressed daily rhythms, 71% tidal, 12% a combination, and 12% were arrhythmic. Those expressing tidal rhythms were more active during flood/high tide, while daily animals tended to be nocturnal. Under subsequent constant conditions, the majority exhibited circatidal activity, with some expressing one activity bout per day. We conclude that juvenile horseshoe crabs entrain to artificial tides, with inundation cycles providing stronger cues than water depth changes.

Horseshoe crab

Entrainment (biomusicology)

10.1080/10236244.2017.1344525

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Citations (2)