Quantification of bioluminescence from the surface to the deep sea demonstrates its predominance as an ecological trait

Abstract

The capability of animals to emit light, called bioluminescence, is considered to be a major factor in ecological interactions. Because it occurs across diverse taxa, measurements of bioluminescence can be powerful to detect and quantify organisms in the ocean. In this study, 17 years of video observations were recorded by remotely operated vehicles during surveys off the California Coast, from the surface down to 3,900 m depth. More than 350,000 observations are classified for their bioluminescence capability based on literature descriptions. The organisms represented 553 phylogenetic concepts (species, genera or families, at the most precise taxonomic level defined from the images), distributed within 13 broader taxonomic categories. The importance of bioluminescent marine taxa is highlighted in the water column, as we showed that 76% of the observed individuals have bioluminescence capability. More than 97% of Cnidarians were bioluminescent, and 9 of the 13 taxonomic categories were found to be bioluminescent dominant. The percentage of bioluminescent animals is remarkably uniform over depth. Moreover, the proportion of bioluminescent and non-bioluminescent animals within taxonomic groups changes with depth for Ctenophora, Scyphozoa, Chaetognatha, and Crustacea. Given these results, bioluminescence has to be considered an important ecological trait from the surface to the deep-sea.

Mammoth grazers on the ocean's minuteness: a review of selective feeding using mucous meshes

“…They can also serve as microhabitats with elevated levels of heterotrophic bacterial growth and remineralization [53][54][55][56]. Because many of these mucous aggregates can fluoresce and luminesce [57], both visual feeders and non-visual flux-feeders consume them [15,52,[58][59][60][61][62] ( figure 3). All mucous-mesh grazers sequester biogenic carbon through production of faecal pellets that sink at high rates (figure 2) [63], except those of doliolids, which are not as compact [64].…”

Exo-Ocean Exploration with Deep-Sea Sensor and Platform Technologies

“…Bioluminescence is a ubiquitous phenomenon in environments that have been stable over large geological times on Earth (i.e., marine as compared to freshwater, where only a few bioluminescent species are known) (Haddock et al, 2010). Bioluminescence evolved independently, being present in most of the major marine phyla (Herring, 1987;Widder, 2010;Martini and Haddock, 2017;Martini et al, 2019), as well as in some bacteria (Martini et al, 2016). Bioluminescence is produced by organisms for predation, defense, and intraspecific communication (Haddock et al, 2010), and organisms can emit it after mechanical stimulation at collisions (Craig et al, 2011).…”

Advances in bioluminescence imaging: new probes from old recipes

“…[4,6] Even fewer have been coopted for use in heterologous systems. [1] Continued efforts to mine new luciferase and luciferin architectures from natural sources are expanding the number of available tools.…”