Why Do Bioluminescent Organisms Mainly Produce Blue Green Light

Blue-green light transmits best through seawater, so it is no surprise that this is the most common color of bioluminescence in the ocean. There are some exceptions to the blue-green/green color rule for ocean bioluminescence.

How can the answer be improved?

Why Do Bioluminescent Organisms Mainly Produce Blue Green Light 33

Why Do Bioluminescent Organisms Mainly Produce Blue Green Light 51

74 rows · Bioluminescent dinoflagellates produce light using a luciferin-luciferase reaction. The luciferase found in dinoflagellates is related to the green chemical chlorophyll found in plants. Bioluminescent dinoflagellate ecosystems are rare, mostly forming in warm-water lagoon s with narrow openings to the open sea.

Why Do Bioluminescent Organisms Mainly Produce Blue Green Light 111

Why Do Bioluminescent Organisms Mainly Produce Blue Green Light 95

Bioluminescence is light emitted by living organisms. Yellow-green light is produced by various insects including glow-worms and fireflies, but it is in the oceans where we see most lights. The light is produced in a chemical reaction in which an enzyme, luciferase, stimulates a reaction between molecules called luciferins and oxygen, which results in the emission of light as well as oxyluciferin.

Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism as the result of a chemical reaction during which chemical energy is converted to light energy.

Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism as the result of a chemical reaction during which chemical energy is converted to light energy.

Because the red end of the visible light spectrum is absorbed before reaching the deep sea, most of the light emitted is blue and green. However, there are species that emit red and infrared light, and one genus has been found to emit yellow bioluminescence.

Why Do Bioluminescent Organisms Mainly Produce Blue Green Light 18

Why Do Bioluminescent Organisms Mainly Produce Blue Green Light 85

Bioluminescence occurs through a chemical reaction that produces light energy within an organism’s body. For a reaction to occur, a species must contain luciferin, a molecule that, when it reacts with oxygen, produces light.

Why Do Bioluminescent Organisms Mainly Produce Blue Green Light 35

In fact, it is estimated that up to 90% of deep-sea creatures produce some form of bioluminescence. Because the red end of the visible light spectrum is absorbed before reaching the deep sea, most of the light emitted is blue and green.

Why Do Bioluminescent Organisms Mainly Produce Blue Green Light 25

Furthermore, some of the blue light released by aequorin in contact with calcium ions is absorbed by a green fluorescent protein, which in turn releases green light in a process called resonant energy transfer. Overall, bioluminescence has arisen over forty times in evolutionary history.

Why Do Bioluminescent Organisms Mainly Produce Blue Green Light 74

Why Do Bioluminescent Organisms Mainly Produce Blue Green Light 29