The bright light emitted by bioluminescent plankton may temporarily blind prospective predators
most beautiful phenomena is the nocturnal bioluminescence visible in the world’s oceans, particularly on shores where waves are breaking and in the wakes of moving objects such as swimmers and ships. This ghostly light is produced by single-celled planktonic creatures called dinoflagellates. Ironically, dinoflagellates are also responsible for one of nature’s nastiest phenomena—red tides. These are water-discolouring, toxin-generating blooms of the organisms.
Toxin-generation is clearly defensive. The purpose of bioluminescence is less clear. But many of those who think about such matters suspect that it, too, has a defensive purpose. And work just published inby Erik Selander and Andrew Prevett of Gothenburg University, in Sweden, confirms that hypothesis.Dr Selander and Mr Prevett conducted their experiments onL. polyedra
that is unable to produce defensive toxins. These tanks also contained colonies of other species of plankton, thus creating mixed communities. In some cases, the researchers tinkered with the dinoflagellates’ internal biological clocks, to rob them of their ability to glow during the experimental period. In some, they let the critters luminesce normally. And to some of these normally luminescing cultures they also added a fat called copepodamide to the water.
They expected the copepods to gobble up the toxin-free dinoflagellates quickly. And this proved true in those colonies where the creatures had been robbed of their luminescent abilities. Whilemade up only a quarter of the possible prey items in these colonies, they constituted three-quarters of the copepods’ diets. By contrast, in colonies wherewere able to glow normally, the dinoflagellates formed only a quarter of the copepod diet.
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