On one night per year, at a specific point in the lunar cycle, one of the most extraordinary reproductive events on the planet unfolds as hundreds of millions of broadcast spawning corals release their trillions of gametes into the waters of the tropical seas. Each species spawns on a specific night within the lunar cycle, typically from full moon to third quarter moon, and in a specific time w...

This paper shows how the exposure of the Moon to the Earth’s plasmasheet is subject to decadal variations due to lunar precession. The latter is a key property of the Moon’s apparent orbit around the Earth – the nodes of that orbit precess around the ecliptic, completing one revolution every 18.6 years. This precession is responsible for a number of astronomical phenomena, e.g. the year to year...

Human and animal physiology are subject to seasonal, lunar, and circadian rhythms. Although the seasonal and circadian rhythms have been fairly well described, little is known about the effects of the lunar cycle on the behavior and physiology of humans and animals. The lunar cycle has an impact on human reproduction, in particular fertility, menstruation, and birth rate. Melatonin levels appea...

We analyzed angling catch records for 341,959 muskellunge (Esox masquinongy) from North America to test for a cyclic lunar influence on the catch. Using periodic regression, we showed that the number caught was strongly related to the 29-day lunar cycle, and the effect was consistent across most fisheries. More muskellunge were caught around the full and new moon than at other times. At night, ...

Lunar cycle-associated physiology has been found in a wide variety of organisms. Recent study has revealed that mRNA levels of Cryptochrome (Cry), one of the circadian clock genes, were significantly higher on a full moon night than on a new moon night in coral, implying the involvement of a photoreception system in the lunar-synchronized spawning. To better establish the generalities surroundi...

Introduction: The idea of stable deposits of volatiles in cold permanently shaded regions (PSRs), first advanced by [1], has been revived since observations by Lunar Prospector suggested large amounts of hydrogen in the polar caps. Previous studies have mainly focused on hydrogen (and water) [2] but other important volatiles such as argon could also be trapped. Temperatures in the coldest regio...

Zooplankton concentrations are known to vary by as much as an order of magnitude over a lunar cycle. Here, we conducted an experiment to determine the effect of ambient zooplankton concentrations over a lunar cycle on feeding rates of the corals Pavona gigantea (Verrill) (mounding coral, 3.0 mm diameter polyps) and Pocillopora damicornis (Linnaeus) (branching coral, 1.0 mm diameter polyps) in s...

A recent article by Chaput and colleagues (1) provides evidence that if a relationship exists between lunar cycle and sleep duration and physical activity in children, its association is rather weak and less-than-meaningful. Using an international sample of 9-to 11-year olds (n = 5812), monitored by accelerometers, Chaput and his team found no relationship between lunar cycle and physical activ...

Objectives: Popular opinion holds that the phase of the moon influences human behavior, and several reports substantiate this claim; however, reports of correlation between the lunar cycle and cardiac events remain controversial. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether a relationship exists between lunar cycle and the occurrence of acute cardiac events. Methods: A retrospectiv...

470 sleep EEGs from 366 healthy participants in a light-controlled sleep laboratory (see Experimental Procedures in Supplemental Information, published with this article online). Lunar classes were defined as previously [2], with lunar class 1 representing full moon ± 4 nights, lunar class 2 covering the waxing and waning moon periods (full moon ± 5–9 nights) and lunar class 3 representing new ...