In 1932, William Beebe wedged his lanky body into a cramped submersible and became the first scientist to descend into the sea’s inky darkness. A tiny window let him gaze out. Later, he described an unfamiliar world of dancing lights, pale glows and beguiling shimmers.
“It seemed to explode,” he said of one luminous creature. Nothing, he added in his book, “Half Mile Down,” had prepared him for the spectacular displays. The colors included pale greens. blues, reds and especially blue-greens, which by nature can travel far in seawater.
Over the decades, biologists learned that the creatures of the deep sea use light much as animals on land use sound － to lure, intimidate, stun, mislead and find mates.
The living lights emanated from tiny fish with needlelike fangs, and gelatinous brutes with thousands of feeding tentacles. The sheer variety suggested that bioluminescence was fairly common, but no scientist came up with a measurement of the phenomenon.
Now, 85 years after Dr. Beebe’s pioneering dive, scientists have succeeded in gauging the actual extent of bioluminescence in the deep ocean.
During 240 research dives in the Pacific, they recorded every occurrence and kind of glowing sea creature － more than 500 types living down as deep as two miles. Then, the researchers merged the results into a comprehensive survey.
The result? Most of the creatures － a stunning 76 percent － made their own light, vastly outnumbering the ranks of the unlit, such as dolphins.
“People think bioluminescence is some kind of exotic characteristic,” said Severine Martini, a marine biologist and lead author of the study, published this year in Scientific Reports. “Even oceanographers don't realize that it's common.”
Her own awakening came one night in a sailboat off Africa. “I was looking at the stars and learning about constellations,” she recalled, and the suddenly began “seeing things that were glowing in the waves.”
As the deep sea is the planet’s largest habitat, the new findings confirm bioluminescence to be one of the earth’s dominant ecological traits, despite its unfamiliarity, according to Dr. Martini and her co-author, Steven H.D. Haddock, both of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research
Institute in California.
“A lot of these questions are centuries old,” Dr. Haddock said. “You see sparks in the water and have no idea what they represent.”
Now, 85 years after Dr. Beebe’s pioneering dive, scientists have succeeded in gauging the actual extent of bioluminescence in the deep ocean.
During 240 research dives in the Pacific, they recorded every occurrence and kind of glowing sea creature － more than 500 types living down as deep as two miles. Then, the researchers merged the results into a comprehensive survey.
The result? Most of the creatures － a stunning 76 percent － made their own light, vastly outnumbering the ranks of the unlit, such as dolphins.
“People think bioluminescence is some kind of exotic characteristic,” said Severine Martini, a marine biologist and lead author of the study, published this year in Scientific Reports. “Even oceanographers don't realize that it's common.”
Her own awakening came one night in a sailboat off Africa. “I was looking at the stars and learning about constellations,” she recalled, and the suddenly began “seeing things that were glowing in the waves.”
As the deep sea is the planet’s largest habitat, the new findings confirm bioluminescence to be one of the earth’s dominant ecological traits, despite its unfamiliarity, according to Dr. Martini and her co-author, Steven H.D. Haddock, both of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research
Institute in California.
“A lot of these questions are centuries old,” Dr. Haddock said. “You see sparks in the water and have no idea what they represent.”
Scientists have traced the evolutionary roots of the living oceanic lights to primal seas hundreds of millions of years ago, long before the age of dinosaurs.
By contrast, terrestrial bioluminescence is relatively new. And the land creatures that light up, unlike their undersea kin, constitute a tiny minority. The ranks include not only fireflies but also some beetles, millipedes and earthworms.
The research institute － in Moss Landing, Calif. at the midpoint of the Monterey Bay shoreline － is a pioneer of deep ocean exploration. It was established in 1987 by David Packard, the billionaire co-founder of Hewlett-Packard and a creator of Silicon Valley.
Dr. Haddock is a world authority on bioluminescence who has published dozens of scientific papers on luminescent ocean life.
By contrast, terrestrial bioluminescence is relatively new. And the land creatures that light up, unlike their undersea kin, constitute a tiny minority. The ranks include not only fireflies but also some beetles, millipedes and earthworms.
The research institute － in Moss Landing, Calif. at the midpoint of the Monterey Bay shoreline － is a pioneer of deep ocean exploration. It was established in 1987 by David Packard, the billionaire co-founder of Hewlett-Packard and a creator of Silicon Valley.
Dr. Haddock is a world authority on bioluminescence who has published dozens of scientific papers on luminescent ocean life.
