Biofluorescent Marine Life: What It All Means
For many of us the only glow-in-the-dark creature we know is the firefly. What most of us don't know is that there is an entire ecosystem of glow-in-the-dark (biofluorescent) creatures all around us, and they dwell beneath the surface of the ocean. Scientists are in the process of studying the underwater creatures, trying to learn how they light up and why.
What is Biofluorescence?
Biofluorescent organisms absorb light, transform it and “re-emit” it as a different color. They do not give off light from their own power source, nor is it a chemical reaction according to Luminescent Labs. When you shine a high-energy light, like a blue light, at the Biofluorescent organisms and see a color like green, it is because the molecules are "excited" by the high-evergy light and lose a part of their light energy and show the rest at a lower-energy wavelength, which appears green.
Biofluorescence Communication?
New research shows that marine fish use red biofluorescence to communicate. This goes against previous theories that fish can't see this deep-red color of the spectrum. This finding could mean that red-eye wrasses use their fluorescence as a private frequency to communicate.
Corals' Fluorescent ''Sunscreen'' May Help Resist Bleaching?
Bleaching occurs when the animals that make-up coral reefs, coral polyps, release photosynthetic algae under environmental stresses, such as too much sunlight. The polyps depend on most their energy to come from the algae that embed themselves under the polyps' skin. The algae is what gives the coral its brown color and are considered important symbiotic partners for the polyps.
Corals, in turn, need sunlight to fuel the algae’s photosynthesis. But too much sunlight can damage the algae, leading them to produce damaging free radicals--being any atom or molecule that has a single unpaired electron in an outer shell. This stress, along with the stress from warming seawater, can lead to bleaching.
Corals’ own fluorescent proteins, which absorb high-energy light and emit it as lower-energy light of longer wavelengths, says Dr. Anya Salih of the University of Western Sydney — who served as the scientific adviser for artist Lynette Wallworth’s installation Coral: Rekindling Venus. This may offer some protection for corals, according to the American Muesem of Natural History.
When sampling corals during the mass coral bleaching event of 1998, when 25 percent of Great Barrier’s inshore reefs were reported to have severe bleaching, Salih found that the corals with fluorescent proteins retained higher levels of algae than those without them. Since cyan fluorescent proteins absorb ultraviolet light, which Salih says can “damage photosynthesis,” and re-emit it as lower-energy blue light, it effectively shields the corals’ algae, which helps prevent the bleaching; however, many questions still remain.
For more videos on glow in the dark marine life visit:
For many of us the only glow-in-the-dark creature we know is the firefly. What most of us don't know is that there is an entire ecosystem of glow-in-the-dark (biofluorescent) creatures all around us, and they dwell beneath the surface of the ocean. Scientists are in the process of studying the underwater creatures, trying to learn how they light up and why.
What is Biofluorescence?
Biofluorescent organisms absorb light, transform it and “re-emit” it as a different color. They do not give off light from their own power source, nor is it a chemical reaction according to Luminescent Labs. When you shine a high-energy light, like a blue light, at the Biofluorescent organisms and see a color like green, it is because the molecules are "excited" by the high-evergy light and lose a part of their light energy and show the rest at a lower-energy wavelength, which appears green.
Biofluorescence Communication?
New research shows that marine fish use red biofluorescence to communicate. This goes against previous theories that fish can't see this deep-red color of the spectrum. This finding could mean that red-eye wrasses use their fluorescence as a private frequency to communicate.
Corals' Fluorescent ''Sunscreen'' May Help Resist Bleaching?
Bleaching occurs when the animals that make-up coral reefs, coral polyps, release photosynthetic algae under environmental stresses, such as too much sunlight. The polyps depend on most their energy to come from the algae that embed themselves under the polyps' skin. The algae is what gives the coral its brown color and are considered important symbiotic partners for the polyps.
Corals, in turn, need sunlight to fuel the algae’s photosynthesis. But too much sunlight can damage the algae, leading them to produce damaging free radicals--being any atom or molecule that has a single unpaired electron in an outer shell. This stress, along with the stress from warming seawater, can lead to bleaching.
Corals’ own fluorescent proteins, which absorb high-energy light and emit it as lower-energy light of longer wavelengths, says Dr. Anya Salih of the University of Western Sydney — who served as the scientific adviser for artist Lynette Wallworth’s installation Coral: Rekindling Venus. This may offer some protection for corals, according to the American Muesem of Natural History.
When sampling corals during the mass coral bleaching event of 1998, when 25 percent of Great Barrier’s inshore reefs were reported to have severe bleaching, Salih found that the corals with fluorescent proteins retained higher levels of algae than those without them. Since cyan fluorescent proteins absorb ultraviolet light, which Salih says can “damage photosynthesis,” and re-emit it as lower-energy blue light, it effectively shields the corals’ algae, which helps prevent the bleaching; however, many questions still remain.
For more videos on glow in the dark marine life visit:
