Bioluminescence – Why Plankton can glow

Who jumps in front of Puerto Rico at night in the water, can watch a special show. The Plankton in the sea begins, rays of blue and green. This effect is called bioluminescence, and our nature is a phenomenon of the week.

If people jump out at night on a beach in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico into the sea, then because of a natural spectacle. The water glows in a mystical, blue-green light to float around. In the case of each floating movement of the light shines again.

Puerto Rico will be the place to watch the lights. Nowhere else in the world, the concentration of the microscopic algae is greater, the biolumineszent, so glow in the dark.

Who bothers, is illuminated

The single-cell hot dinoflagellates, you might call them fireflies of the sea. They occur everywhere in the world. But only where there are really many, can you see them Shine. And many are there only if the conditions are right, so time of the year, water quality and nutrient supply. Then colonies of up to 100,000 protozoa per Liter of water to grow. When the sun is shining, even better. Then it can be charged with the dinoflagellates, such as in the case of a solar lamp.

The lights will be set by a simple chemical process

And a troublemaker now, then the Plankton to glow, to scare the intruder away. In the case of predators, the flaps don’t like when people obviously.

Where is it coming from the lights?

The light is produced by a simple chemical reaction. Oxygen and biological substances, Luciferin and Luciferase (an enzyme), there is energy released as light.

All the living beings, the can the rays. There are different color variants. While water-living creatures, especially blue or blue-green lights, because the water is given the highest visibility, appear to the fireflies on Land rather yellow. Red shines the Black dragon fish. Because red is not able to perceive many of the animals of the deep sea, however, represents the light, for him, a kind of searchlight that helps him, but other people might not notice. Refined.

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  500 million years of jellyfish drifting through the seas – and without a brain. A good message for us people, huh? Well, the jellyfish is its sophisticated nervous system is enough. External stimuli provide for immediate implementation. A brain, the Information is processed, the jellyfish would therefore not be necessary. Incidentally, this is a cauliflower jellyfish – our favorite!

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  Goo thing

  The jellyfish in the sea at home. But this does not mean long, that it is a fish or even a Mammal. In the Depths of the ocean, so all kinds of romps. As a Cnidarian, the jellyfish belongs to the relatives of the corals and sea anemones. In addition, you will be called Medusa (Meduse), because their tentacles are like snakes move their bodies.

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  Clearly

  Jellyfish are 99% water. The man to 63 percent. Most of the jellyfish to your screen. Because the gastric stem depends on the absorption and digestion of food, and hundreds of part-meter-long tentacles. Which are essential for the keys and Hunting.

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  Such and SUCH

  Usually jellyfish are transparent or white. But there are also a few more unusual representatives. Brightly colored or giant jellyfish like this Asian Nomura jellyfish, with a diameter of up to two meters, you can put 200 kg on the scale.

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  With the current

  Scientists refer to jellyfish as Plankton because they are usually driven by the flow. A professional in the Fort, the jellyfish is not just: it sucks you in with her umbrella the water and it pushes through a pull-in movement of the wing to create a rebound. In order to make it to ten kilometers per hour. Since beetles are even faster to walk.

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  Graceful and toxic

  Caution: As graceful as it may look, such as the jellyfish floats through the water, in some species, the tentacles are, as in the case of this fire jellyfish. Because the Tentacles are studded with stinging cells. The time is right, the jellyfish fires and injected her victims in order for virtually a poison-filled syringe. On the dining plan, preferably Plankton, algae, small crustaceans and fish larvae.

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  How Nettles

  Man and fire jellyfish are getting closer, it could be very unpleasant: burns The skin and forms blisters. Normally, no life is but the risk. It is different in the case of the box jellyfish, also known as the sea wasp. It is especially in the North and East coast of Australia and in the Western Pacific. Their Toxin is one of the strongest toxins in the animal Kingdom.

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  Colorful Special Effects

  And what are the jellyfish still has in stock? A lot! Best example is: as soon As this light jellyfish is mechanically irritated, for example by water turbulence, it begins to glow. The expert speaks of bioluminescence, the ability to produce yourself or with the help of bacteria. Nice, what is?

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  Sophisticated Life-Cycle

  Jellyfish reproduce by generation change take place. The sexual and the asexual reproduction occurs, therefore, from Generation to Generation alternately. If the jellyfish gender have produced cells, merge them. It is a larval form that settles to the ground. This results in a Polyp and later, many of the new jellyfish is in turn formed.

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  Jellyfish-Carpaccio

  Again and again it also comes to plagues of Jellyfish. Biologists suspect that this is due to the Overfishing and the decline of the sea turtles and jellyfish-eating fish. Gradually, the jellyfish, however, gain in popularity – although not in the sea, but as a delicacy on the plate. Without any aroma, it serves as an excellent flavor carrier: http://dw.com/p/1DNr5

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  Stranded

  So, who will be in such a slimy pancakes on the beach: This is most likely a jellyfish that has lost its grace, in this state, completely. Who wants to do something Good you can carry by using protective gloves quickly back into the sea. But most of all, a note: Not to step on it and not the sunbathing throw Strandnixe on the belly!

  Author: Hannah Fox