SOUTH EASTERN RAILWAY MIXED

HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL ADRA

[CAMPUS – I]

BIOLOGY INVESTIGATORY
PROJECT
TOPIC – BIOLOGICAL CLOCK
YEAR – 2023 – 2024

Name – Bivek Biswakarma

Roll – 21
Class – XI SC
Guided by – Mrs. DEEPIKA GHOSH

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deep gratitude and sincere thanks to

our principle, Smt. SASHI PRABHA EKKA, New principal of S E
RAILWAY MIXED H S SCHOOL ADRA, CAMPUS 1 for his
encouragement ana all the facilities that he provided for this
project work. I extent my hearty thanks to our biology teacher
Mrs. Deepika Ghosh who guided me to successful completion of
this project. I take this opportunity to express my deep sense of
gratitude for his invaluable guidance, constant encouragement,
constructive comments, sympathetic attitude, and immersive
motivation which has sustained my efforts at all stages of this
project.
I can’t forget to offer my sincere thanks to my family and friends
who helped me to carry out this project successfully and their
valuable advice and support, which helped me a lot in finalizing
this project within the limited period.

DECLARATION

Bivek Biswakarma of XI, roll no. 21 hereby declares that all

information in this project is correct as per my knowledge and up
to the standard of Senior Secondary Education.
This project has been completed under the guidance and
supervision of Mrs. Deepika Ghosh, head of the biology
department, S.E.RLY.MIXED.H.S SCHOOL ADRA.

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Bivek Biswakarma of class XI Science, Roll

No.
21 session 2023-2024 of the assembly of S.E RLY.MIXED.H.S
SCHOOL ADRA has worked under my guidance and supervision
and has satisfactorily completed the investigatory project in
biology.
He has taken proper care and has shown utmost sincerity in the
completion of this project.

.................................... .................................. ..........................

Mrs. Deepika Ghosh Smt. Sashi Prabha Examined By
Ekka
PGT, Biology Principal

INDEX

Sr. no Content Page. no Signature

 1. Introduction

2. Physiology of
biological clock.

3. Biological rhythms.

4. Types of biological
rhythms.

5. Circadian rhythms.

6. Physiology.

7. Lunar and tidal

rhythm.

8. Circannual rhythm.

9. Biological rhythm
Disorder.

10. Photoperiodism.

11. Bibliography.

INTRODUCTION

Plants and animals in the temperate zones respond in various

ways to the amount of daylight in 24-hour periods. This response
to day length is called photoperiodism. It controls many activities,
among them the migration of birds, the hibernation of animals,
and the flowering of plants. The ability to respond to day length is
linked to an endogenous, or inner, light-sensitive circadian
rhythm.
In the temperate zones, day lengths during the natural 24-hour
cycle vary with the seasons. In winter and spring, the period of
light lengthens; in summer and autumn, it shortens. Organisms in
these zones undergo alternate 12-hour phases of light sensitivity.
For one 12-hour phase, decreasing exposure to light induces a
shortday reaction. For example, deciduous trees, under the
influence of the shorter days of autumn drop their leaves. During
the other 12hour phase, increasing exposure to light induces a
long-day reaction. Deciduous trees grow leaves again during the
lengthening days of spring. Although this description has been
greatly simplified, it indicates that through their sensitivity to
changes in the duration of light, living things can measure day
length to determine the season and the time spans within a
season.
The relationship of this “time sense” to circadian rhythms is easily
demonstrated. Florists, for example, often “trick” greenhouse
plants into producing blossoms out of season by exposing them to
unseasonal periods of artificial light.

BIOLOGICAL CLOCK.... (A LIFE CLOCK)

An innate timing mechanism in living organisms that controlled

the periodicity of various functions or activities, such metabolic
changes, sleep cycles or photosynthesis etc. is termed as
biological clock.
The study related to biological clock and its regulation is coiled in
a branch of science called Chronobiology which simply means
Chrono-Time and Biology-Study of life.

An internal clock that’s located in the region of the brain is a

group of about 20000 nerve cells in the brain called the
Suprachiasmatic nucleus or SCN.

The biological clock that coordinates several other smaller

internal clocks- made of genes and proteins- located throughout
the body and operating in a feedback loop.
A master clock coordinates all the other body clocks to ensure
everything runs in a synchronized manner and the body
processes work as intended.

PHYSIOLOGY OF BIOLOGICAL CLOCK

• In mammal cells for biological clock are in the

hypothalamus in two cluster of nerve cells called the
suprachiasmatic nuclei.
 • Light receptors on retina are connected by the nerve to the
SCN.

• SCN and mammal pineal gland are linked.

• Thus, light is obtained by the eye which passes this

information on to the pineal gland, controlling melatonin
production.

• A hormone that is produced by the pineal gland in animals

and regulates sleep and wakefulness which is produced in
high levels at night and low levels during the day.

• As SCN generates a rhythm that lasts longer than 24 hrs., it

needs to be reset each day.

• Reset or adjusted by a no of factors called phase setters or

synchronize or daily clues.

Light, darkness, temperature, sound, feeding time etc.

Ex: Nocturnal animals use darkness for resetting their

biological clock.

• It is an automatic clock which can produce biological

rhythm in both plants and animals.

BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS

A sequence of bodily activities that repeat themselves through

time in the same order and at the same interval.
These activities are cyclic in nature and are repeating at regular
intervals such as sleeping and awaking, menstrual cycle,
breeding behavior, migration in birds are some good examples of
biological rhythms.

FORMS Endogenous EXOGENOUS

(Biological CLOCK CONTROL) (DIRECT CONTROL)

They are built in and naturally occur within our They are driven directly by the
environment or bodies. They are regulated by the organism and are another external influence.
not dependent on external stimuli.
Ex: Hopping sparrows on a perch when a light is
Ex: Circadian rhythms, body temperature regulation, turned on. Such rhythms ate said to have a
menstrual cycle etc. geophysical counterpart; in this case, the presence of light.

TYPES OF BIOLOGICAL RHYTHM…………

• Circadian rhythm.

• Lunar and tidal rhythm.

• Circannual rhythm.

CIRCADIAN RHYTHM

These are the daily biological rhythms which occur on a 24-hr.

cycle and co-relates to the dark (night)-light (day) cycle.
The common physiologies under circadian rhythm are……….

• The sleeping and awakening in humans.

• Flowering in lilies and jasmine.
• Laying eggs in hen etc.
The master clock located in the hypothalamus in the brain is
situated right above the point where optic nerves responsible for
the vision cross. This location keeps the master body clock
synced in with sunlight cues that regulate it. Along with light,
genes play a role in biological clock functioning.

PHYSIOLOGY

Exposure to natural daylight- stimulates nerve pathway from

special photoreceptive ganglion cells in the retina of the eye.
These cells contain a unique light-sensitive pigment called
melanopsin and are most sensitive to short wave “blue light”.
The light dark signals are sent via the optic nerve to the
suprachiasmatic nucleus, which uses them to reset its own clock
each day.

LUNAR AND TIDAL RHYTHM

The cyclical activities exhibited by organisms in relation to the

29day lunar month are called lunar rhythms. Most obvious
environment variables affected by the moon are light and tide
and of this tide appears to have the greatest impact. For this
reason, lunar rhythms seem to occur mostly in marine species.
During full moon and new moon days = tides are greatest are
called spring tides caused by the cooperative gravitational
attractions of sun and moon. At the moon’s quarters and the sun,
the moon opposes each other resulting in small tides called ebb
tides. The spring and ebb tides occur at an interval of 14.5 days.
Hence this rhythm has a duration of 29 days.
Certain animals’ activities are adapted to lunar cycles, and they
exhibit lunar rhythms. The best studied lunar are the monthly
reproductive rhythms of

• Palolo worms.
• Fire worms.
• Sea lily.
• May fly swarming.
The breeding rhythms of these animals are in relation to the
phases of moon.
Ex- Classical ex palolo worm.

A tube dweller in coral reefs in the burrow beneath sea, but the
posterior ends distended with ripe gametes, break off and
wriggle to surface in such waste number that water is milky and
hour or two with then egg and sperms, this swarming occurs at
down.
 CIRCANNUAL RHYTHM

The biological activities exhibited by organisms repeated year by

year is termed as circannual rhythm.
There are certain physiological events occurring in many
organisms with an interval of 1 year or 365 days.
Example – Migratory birds.

Every year they fly without fail. Experiments have been carried
out in which the birds have been kept in a controlled
environment, without the chance of a disease or any situation
that might cause them to migrate. But still, the birds showed
migration at the same as they did every year.

• Then there are the breeding cycles of different organisms.

They repeat the same cycle every year at the same time.

• Another example could be the hibernation cycle. It is

repeated even if the conditions do not require hibernation.

WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF RHYTHM DISORDERS?

Disorders may develop when natural biological are distributed.

These disorders include:

Sleep disorder: The body is “wired” to sleep at night. Disruptions

in the body’s natural rhythms can lead to affected sleep, including
insomnia.

Jet lag: A disruption in circadian rhythms when travelling

across time zones or overnight.

Shift work disorders: When a person works outside the

typical workday it causes changes in typical circadian rhythms.
• Excessive sleepiness affecting people whose work hours
overlap with the typical sleep period.
PHOTOPERIODISM
It is the functional or behavioral response of an organism to
changes of duration in daily, seasonal, or yearly cycles of light
and darkness.

……………………It occurs in both plants and animals as well……………………

The response of plants to the photoperiod (Period of time each

day during which an organism receives illumination) expressed
in the form of flowering is called photoperiodism.
When stimulated by light, an animal’s pituitary gland will release
hormones that affect reproduction. Thus, mating season of a
species can be made to occur at an unusual time by manipulating
daylight.

 Long periods of light followed by short periods = induce

mating behavior in species that normally breed in autumn
(e.g. goats and sheep.

 While spring breeders (e.g. mink) will start the reproductive

process when daylight is increased.

Application of photoperiodism is common in the poultry industry,

as daylight affects egg-laying mating.
• Reproduction in many species occurs at species occurs at
specific times of the year. Plants produce pollen at the times
when pollinators will be active.

• While animals after reproducing in the spring and the summer

take advantage of the warmer temperature.

• Often reproduction is triggered by a critical photoperiod.

 In many male animals, testis size is affected by photoperiod.

 In both hamsters and some birds for example the testes are
small on short days (i.e. in winter) but grow dramatically in
long days.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Encyclopedia Britanica.

 NCERT Textbook.

 www.google.com

 www.wikipedia.com