Anne Aulsebrook

Max Planck Institute for Ornithology · Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics

Here, we propose an original approach to explain one of the great unresolved questions in animal biology: what is the function of sleep? Existing ecological and neurological approaches to this question have become roadblocks to an answer. Ecologists typically treat sleep as a simple behavior, instead of a heterogeneous neurophysiological state, whi...

Natural cycles of light and darkness govern the timing of most aspects of animal behavior and physiology. Artificial light at night (ALAN)—a recent and pervasive form of pollution—can mask natural photoperiodic cues and interfere with biological rhythms. One such rhythm vulnerable to perturbation is the sleep–wake cycle. ALAN may greatly influence...

Artificial light at night can disrupt sleep in humans [1, 2, 3, 4] and other animals [5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. A key mechanism for light to affect sleep is via non-visual photoreceptors that are most sensitive to short-wavelength (blue) light [11]. To minimize effects of artificial light on sleep, many electronic devices shift from white (blue-rich) to...

In nature, light is a key driver of animal behaviour and physiology. When studying captive or laboratory animals, researchers usually expose animals to a period of darkness, to mimic night. However, ‘darkness’ is often poorly quantified and its importance is generally underappreciated in animal research. Even small differences in nocturnal light co...

Terrestrial, marine and freshwater realms are inherently linked through ecological, biogeochemical and/or physical processes. An understanding of these connections is critical to optimise management strategies and ensure the ongoing resilience of ecosystems. Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a global stressor that can profoundly affect a wide ran...

Terrestrial, marine, and freshwater realms are inherently linked through ecological, biogeochemical and/or physical processes. An understanding of these connections is critical to optimise management strategies and ensure the ongoing resilience of ecosystems. Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a global stressor that can profoundly affect a wide ra...

Terrestrial, marine, and freshwater realms are inherently linked through ecological, biogeochemical and/or physical processes. An understanding of these connections is critical to optimise management strategies and ensure the ongoing resilience of ecosystems. Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a global stressor that can profoundly affect a wide ra...

Some animals, including certain fish, beetles, spiders and Lepidoptera chrysalises, have such shiny or glossy surfaces that they appear almost mirror‐like. A compelling but unsubstantiated hypothesis is that a highly specular or mirror‐like appearance enhances survival by reflecting the surrounding environment and reducing detectability. We tested...

Sleep has a multitude of benefits and is generally considered necessary for optimal performance. Disruption of sleep by extended photoperiods, moonlight and artificial light could therefore impair performance in humans and non-human animals alike. Here, we review the evidence for effects of light on sleep and subsequent performance in birds. There...

Colour polymorphic species are model systems for examining the evolutionary processes that generate and maintain discrete phenotypic variation in natural populations. Lizards have repeatedly evolved strikingly similar polymor-phic sexual signals in distantly related lineages, providing an opportunity to examine convergence and divergence in colour...

Urban areas are inherently noisy, and this noise can disrupt biological processes as diverse as communication, migration, and reproduction. We investigated how exposure to urban noise affects sleep, a process critical to optimal biological functioning, in Australian magpies (Cracticus tibicen). Eight magpies experimentally exposed to noise in capti...

Artificial light at night could have widespread and detrimental impacts on sleep. To reduce disruptive effects of artificial light on sleep in humans, most smartphones and computers now have software that reduces blue light emissions at night. Little is known about whether reducing blue light emissions from city lights could also benefit urban wild...

Environmental pollution is an increasing problem for wildlife globally. Animals are confronted with many different forms of pollution, including chemicals, light, noise, and heat, and these can disrupt critical biological processes such as reproduction. Impacts on reproductive processes can dramatically reduce the number and quality of offspring pr...

Immunosenescence, the decline in immune defense with age, is an important mortality source in elderly humans but little is known of immunosenescence in wild animals. We systematically reviewed and meta‐analysed evidence for age‐related changes in immunity in captive and free‐living populations of wild species (321 effect sizes in 62 studies across...

Manual scoring of polysomnography data is labor-intensive and time-consuming, and most existing software does not account for subjective differences and user variability. Therefore, we evaluated a supervised machine learning algorithm, SomnivoreTM, for automated wake–sleep stage classification. We designed an algorithm that extracts features from v...

Investment in immune function can be costly, and life-history theory predicts trade-offs between immune function and other physiological demands. Environmental heterogeneity may constrain or change the optimal strategy and thereby alter baseline immune function (possibly mediated by stress responses). We tested several hypotheses relating variation...

ON THE COVER: The cover image is based on the Review Impacts of artificial light at night on sleep: A review and prospectus by Anne E. Aulsebrook et al., DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jez.2189.