Bioluminescence Colour Adaptation

Alright, so let us go deeper into the subject of lights and understand what kind of colour these organisms produce and the process related to it, So you must have seen Deeps seas documentary showcasing the Bioluminescence that these animals don’t only illuminate the blue colour but also adapt different colour lights,

So the question which arises in our minds is how have they adapted themselves to produce different lights?

Colour of Light Adaptation

“S cience curriculum for educators” adapted from “All that Glitters” in NOAA’s Learning Ocean Science Through Ocean Exploration have mentioned, Having the red coloration used for camouflage act is not the only strategy used by organisms within the deep sea, but also many organisms in the depth can produce their own light which is called Bioluminescence, for example, some fishes possess bioluminescent in their bellies which help them to match the visible light and glow the bioluminescent belly to disappear into the background, some of the organisms are transparent and they use the red color to camouflage with the surrounding to protect themselves from becoming prey. There are different uses of bioluminescent are adapted by the deep-sea organisms which help them to survive in that habitat.

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The Deep-sea camouflage can be understood only by having the understanding of the Light Spectrum when it penetrates deep seas the light is known as “Visible Light Spectrum” which the human eye can easily see and are able to see all the colors of the spectrum as they travel above the land through the air yet the visibility differ in the underwater as longer wavelength cannot travel far. So, The light appears to be white when all colors are together due to the presence of a narrow band of electromagnetic radiation the makes it appears white, the colors of the spectrum are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, as the light penetrates into the deep sea with a very rapid speed where each color of spectrum possess a specific wavelength range where these colors of the spectrum are dissimilar with their visibility under the sea as per there wavelength range so for example, the colors that are present in the middle of the spectrum which is Yellow, Green and Blue penetrates water to the extreme depth of the sea whereas the colors like Violet which have a longer wavelength and color like Red and Orange that have shorter wavelength are absorbed and are scattered rapidly yet some amount of the shorter wavelength of light can be seen in both shallow and deep water. This property of light plays a very crucial role to influence the patterns and coloration of the marine organism in the deep sea which also distribute them into their kinds, as mentioned in the science curriculum for educators (Aquarium).

Most of the deep-sea organism have red coloration and that is very effective for them to become invisible or camouflage within the depth of the sea as the color Red have shorter wavelength so it cannot reach to the depth which also make few organisms to lose the ability to see. (E. Widder, April 2018)