Bioluminescence

Assembled from 13 blocks · 2 evidence · 5 related

1. Story
2. Biological light production, overwhelmingly the dominant source of light in the ocean below the epipelagic. Used for luring prey, counter-illumination camouflage against the faint downwelling light of the twilight zone, startle defence, and signalling. It is the reason the deep sea is dark but not lightless, and the reason many deep-sea eyes are retained rather than lost. A process, not a place.
3. Knowledge
4. Mesopelagic Zone (Twilight Zone)
5. Bioluminescence
6. Connections
7. Mesopelagic Zone (Twilight Zone)
8. Epipelagic Zone (Sunlight Zone)
9. Bathypelagic Zone (Midnight Zone)
10. Bioluminescence
11. Evidence
12. Below the photic zone the ecosystem depends on sinking organic material (marine snow) and on food falls; bioluminescence is the dominant light source, and deep pelagic predators such as anglerfishes use luminous lures in a food-scarce environment.
13. Sunlight does not penetrate below roughly 1,000 m; the aphotic zone below that comprises the bathypelagic (1,000-4,000 m), the abyss (4,000-6,000 m) and the hadal (6,000 m and deeper). Attenuation is continuous, and these depths are stated as conventional bands, not measured discontinuities.