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Bioluminescence in plankton and nekton

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Date Issued:
2001
Title: Bioluminescence in plankton and nekton.
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Name(s): Herring, P. J., creator
Widder, Edith A., creator
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Article
Issuance: single unit
Date Issued: 2001
Publisher: Academic Press, Inc.
Extent: 7 p.
Physical Description: pdf
Language(s): English
Identifier: 3353888 (digitool), FADT3353888 (IID), fau:6664 (fedora)
Note(s): Bioluminescence is the capacity of living organisms to emit visible light. In so doing they utilise a variety of chemiluminescent reaction systems. It has been historically confused with phosphorescence and the latter term is still frequently (and erroneously) used to describe marine bioluminescence. Some terrestrial species (e.g. fireflies) have the same ability but this adaptation has been most extensively developed in the oceans. Bioluminescent species occur in only 5 terrestrial phyla, and only in one of these (Arthropoda, which includes the insects) are there many examples. In contrast, bioluminescence occurs in 14 marine phyla, many of which include numerous luminescent species (Table 1). All oceanic habitats, shallow and deep, pelagic and benthic, include bioluminescent species, but the phenomenon is commonest in the upper 1000m of the pelagic environment.
The final published version of this manuscript is available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/ and may be cited as: Herring, P. J., & Widder, E. A. (2001). Bioluminescence in plankton and nekton. In J. H. Steele, S. A. Thorpe & K. K. Turekian (eds.), Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences, 1. (pp. 308-317). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Florida Atlantic University. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute contribution #1452.
Subject(s): Bioluminescence
Plankton
Nekton
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/FCLA/DT/3353888
Restrictions on Access: ©2001 Academic Press, Inc.
Host Institution: FAU