USGS · 70266263
When the wild things are: Defining mammalian diel activity and plasticity
Abstract
Circadian rhythms are a mechanism by which species adapt to environmental variability and fundamental to understanding species behavior. However, we lack data and a standardized framework to accurately assess and compare temporal activity for species during rapid ecological change. Through a global network representing 38 countries, we leveraged 8.9 million mammalian observations to create a library of 14,587 standardized diel activity estimates for 445 species. We found that less than half the species’ estimates were in agreement with diel classifications from the reference literature and that species commonly used more than one diel classification. Species diel activity was highly plastic when exposed to anthropogenic change. Furthermore, body size and distributional extent were strongly associated with whether a species is diurnal or nocturnal. Our findings provide essential knowledge of species behavior in an era of rapid global change and suggest the need for a new, quantitative framework that defines diel activity logically and consistently while capturing species plasticity.
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Kadambari Devarajan, Mason Fidino, Zach J. Farris, Solny A. Adalsteinsson, Gabriel Andrade-Ponce, Julia Angstmann, Whitney Anthonysamy, Jesica Aquino, Addisu Asefa, Belen Avila, Larissa L. Bailey, Lyandra Maria de Sousa Barbosa, Marcela de Frias Barreto, Owain Barton, Chloe E Bates, Mayara Guimarães Beltrão, Tori Bird, Elizabeth G Biro, Francesco Bisi, Daniel Bohórquez, Mark S. Boyce, Justin S. Brashares, Grace Bullington, Phoebe Burns, Jessica Burr, Andrew R. Butler, Kendall L. Calhoun, Tien Trung Cao, Natalia Casado, Juan Camilo Cepeda-Duque, Jonathon D. Cepek, Adriano Garcia Chiarello, Merri Collins, Pedro Cordeiro-Estrela, Sebastian Costa, Giacomo Cremonesi, Bogdan Cristescu, Paula Cruz, Anna Carolina Figueiredo de Albuquerque, Carlos De Angelo, Cláudia Bueno De Campos, Liana Mara Mendes De Sena, Mario Di Bitetti, Douglas de Matos Dias, Duane R. Diefenbach, Tim S. Doherty, Thais P dos Santos, Gabriela Teixeira Duarte, Timothy M. Eppley, John Erb, Carolina Franco Esteves, Bryn Evans, Maria L.M. Falcão, Hugo Fernandes-Ferreira, John R. Fieberg, Luiz Carlos Firmino de Souza Filho, Jason Fisher, Marie-Josee Fortin, George A. Gale, Travis Gallo, Laken S Ganoe, Rony Garcia-Anleu, Kaitlyn M. Gaynor, Tiziana A. Gelmi-Candusso, Phillys N. Gichuru, Quimey Gomez, Austin M. Green, Luiza Neves Guimarães, Jeffrey D. Haight, Lavendar R. Harris, Zachary D. Hawn, Jordan Heiman, Huy Quoc Hoang, Sarah Huebner, Fabiola Iannarilli, María Eugenia Iezzi, Jacob S. Ivan, Kodi J. Jaspers, Mark J Jordan, Jason Kamilar, Mamadou Kane, Mohammad Hosein Karimi, Marcella J. Kelly, Michel T. Kohl, William P. Kuvlesky, Andrew Ladle, Rachel N. Larson, Quy Tan Le, Duy Le, Van Son Le, Elizabeth W. Lehrer, Patrick E Lendrum, Jesse S. Lewis, Andrés Link, Diego J. Lizcano, Jason V. Lombardi, Robert Long, Eva López-Tello, Camile Lugarini, David Lugo. 2025. When the wild things are: Defining mammalian diel activity and plasticity. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ado3843
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