Balance equations can buffer noisy and sustained environmental perturbations of circadian clocks.

We present a new approach to understanding how regulatory networks such as circadian clocks might evolve robustness to environmental fluctuations. The approach is in terms of new balance equations that we derive. We use it to describe how an entrained clock can buffer the effects of daily fluctuations in light and temperature levels. We also use it to study a different approach to temperature compensation where instead of considering a free-running clock, we study temperature buffering of the phases in a light-entrained clock, which we believe is a more physiological setting.