Circasemiannual chronomics: half-yearly biospheric changes in their own right and as a circannual waveform.
Geomagnetic activity has a strong half-yearly but no precise yearly component in its spectrum, as Armin Grafe suggested nearly half a century ago. We have postulated elsewhere that non-photic cycles such as those in geomagnetics may have signatures in the biosphere and vice versa that biological rhythms have likely counterparts in the physical environment. Accordingly, we document phenomena characterized by a prominent about half-yearly variation, re-analyzed to constitute the start of a transdisciplinary chronomic (time structural) map, aligning these conditions with a half-yearly cycle in the geomagnetic index Kp. At least some biospheric phenomena fitted concomitantly with 1- and 0.5-year cosine curves exhibit an amplitude (A) ratio of A(0.5-year)/A(1-year) larger than unity. Methodologically, it is pertinent that even if data were read off published graphs, the resulting analyses were practically the same as those in the original data received subsequently. The main point is a circasemiannual pattern in status epilepticus, in several morbid oral conditions, in the cell density of vasopressin-containing neurons in the human suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), in circulating melatonin at middle latitudes at night during years of minimal solar activity or around noon at high latitudes, and in an unusual circasemiannual aspect of a birth-month-dependence of human longevity. Others have asked whether annual rhythms in human reproduction are biological, sociological or both. We show some other possibilities herein, involving the physical environment, hardly to be neglected in the case of open systems. As to almost certainly multifactorial circasemiannual rhythms, geomagnetics may also be a signal, a proxy or a putative, at least partial mechanism. Geomagnetic activity is related in its turn to solar and galactic activity, and may be a marker for other cyclic events that affect the biosphere. The similarity of cycle lengths in itself can only be a hint prompting the search for causal relations.
Cornélissen
Germaine
G
Halberg Chronobiology Center, University of Minnesota, MMC 8689, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. corne001@umn.edu
Halberg
Franz
F
Pöllmann
Ludwig
L
Pöllmann
Brigitte
B
Katinas
George S
GS
Minne
Hélène
H
Breus
Tamara
T
Sothern
Robert B
RB
Watanabe
Yoshihiko
Y
Tarquini
Roberto
R
Perfetto
Federico
F
Maggioni
Cristina
C
Wilson
Douglas
D
Gubin
Denis
D
Otsuka
Kuniaki
K
Bakken
Earl E
EE
D001272:Atmosphere; D001683:Biological Clocks; D018534:Earth, Planet; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields / Q000009:adverse effects; D004892:Erythema Multiforme / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005882:Gingival Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D006560:Herpes Labialis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D010507:Periodicity; D019445:Solar Activity; D013226:Status Epilepticus / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D013281:Stomatitis, Aphthous / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology