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Urban-like night illumination reduces melatonin release in European blackbirds (Turdus merula): implications of city life for biological time-keeping of songbirds

Overview of attention for article published in Frontiers in Zoology, October 2013
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#23 of 695)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (98th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (88th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
9 news outlets
blogs
2 blogs
policy
1 policy source
twitter
9 X users
facebook
1 Facebook page
googleplus
2 Google+ users
reddit
1 Redditor

Citations

dimensions_citation
134 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
238 Mendeley
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Title
Urban-like night illumination reduces melatonin release in European blackbirds (Turdus merula): implications of city life for biological time-keeping of songbirds
Published in
Frontiers in Zoology, October 2013
DOI 10.1186/1742-9994-10-60
Pubmed ID
Authors

Davide M Dominoni, Wolfgang Goymann, Barbara Helm, Jesko Partecke

Abstract

Artificial light-at-night is known to affect a broad array of behaviours and physiological processes. In urbanized bird species, light-at-night advances important biological rhythms such as daily cycles of activity/rest and timing of reproduction, but our knowledge of the underlying physiological mechanisms is limited. Given its role as chronobiological signal, melatonin is a strong candidate for mediating the effects of light-at-night. We exposed urban and rural European blackbirds (Turdus merula) to two light treatments equal in photoperiod but with different light intensities at night. The control group was exposed to 0.0001 lux (almost darkness), while the experimental group was exposed to 0.3 lux at night, simulating conditions recorded previously on free-living urban blackbirds. We obtained diel profiles of plasma melatonin for all birds in summer (July) and winter (January), while simultaneously recording locomotor activity. Daily patterns of melatonin concentrations were clearly affected by light-at-night in both seasons. In winter, melatonin concentrations of light-at-night birds were lower in the early and late night than in those of birds kept in darkness. In summer, melatonin concentrations of the light-at-night birds were lower through all night compared to birds kept in darkness. Locomotor activity in light-at-night birds was overall higher than in control individuals, both during the day and at night, and it increased sharply before dawn. In winter, the amount of activity before dawn in the light-at-night group correlated with changes in melatonin from midnight to late night: the greater the decrease in melatonin, the greater the amount of pre-dawn activity. Urban and rural birds responded similarly to light-at-night with respect to melatonin, but differed in their behaviour, with rural birds showing more locomotor activity than urban counterparts. This study points to reduced melatonin release at night as a potential physiological mechanism underlying the advanced onset of morning activity of urbanized birds. Based on the pattern of melatonin secretion, we suggest that birds responded to light-at-night as if they were exposed to a longer day than birds kept under dark nights.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 9 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 238 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 4 2%
Portugal 1 <1%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Australia 1 <1%
France 1 <1%
Spain 1 <1%
United States 1 <1%
Unknown 228 96%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 45 19%
Researcher 39 16%
Student > Bachelor 39 16%
Student > Ph. D. Student 37 16%
Other 11 5%
Other 29 12%
Unknown 38 16%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 122 51%
Environmental Science 43 18%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 9 4%
Social Sciences 3 1%
Unspecified 3 1%
Other 14 6%
Unknown 44 18%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 90. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 15 June 2022.
All research outputs
#468,996
of 25,371,288 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Zoology
#23
of 695 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#3,688
of 220,243 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Zoology
#2
of 17 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,371,288 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 695 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 20.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 220,243 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 17 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its contemporaries.