Are southern elephant seals attracted by the bioluminescence of lantern fishes in the deep dark of thesouthern Ocean?
Bioluminescence, the emission of visible light by living organism, is mostly found in the deep ocean where it is used to avoid or help predation as well as communication between conspecifics. This work is based on the hypothesis that bioluminescence could also be used by predators, here the southern...
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ftunivlouvain:oai:dial.uclouvain.be:boreal:169198 2024-05-19T07:39:44+00:00 Are southern elephant seals attracted by the bioluminescence of lantern fishes in the deep dark of thesouthern Ocean? Mallefet, Jérôme Vacquié-Garcia, Jade Bailleul , Frédéric Guinet , Christophe 21st Benelux Congress of Zoology UCL - SST/ELI/ELIB - Biodiversity 2014 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/169198 eng eng boreal:169198 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/169198 info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess 3123 QH301 info:eu-repo/semantics/conferenceObject 2014 ftunivlouvain 2024-04-24T01:26:47Z Bioluminescence, the emission of visible light by living organism, is mostly found in the deep ocean where it is used to avoid or help predation as well as communication between conspecifics. This work is based on the hypothesis that bioluminescence could also be used by predators, here the southern elephant seals (SES), to locate their prey. It has been shown that SES are endowed with a vision adapted to low light intensity with a peak sensitivity at 479 nm, matching not only the wavelength of natural light at depth but also the bioluminescent spectrum of most mesopelagic organisms. Lantern fishes represent the biggest biomass in the southern ocean and are known to be SES’s main prey. In this work, we aimed to reveal that Prey Catch Attempts (PCA) might be related to bioluminescent events. By stimulating the bioluminescence of lantern fishes trawled during Mycto 3D expedition (MD197) and by analysing diving behaviour of three satellite-tracked females equipped with high sampling rate Time-Depth-Light 3D-accelerometers and magnetometers recorders (MK10-X and DDT) we were able (i) to link the number of Prey Catch Attempts (PCA), assessed from the processing of accelerometer data, with the number of detected bioluminescence events; (ii) to assess if SES modified trajectory and performed PCA in relation to bioluminescence events; (iii) to measure bioluminescence characteristics of several lantern fishes species. Results revealed that lantern fishes produced a blue luminescence (450nm) and although PCA could take place in absence of bioluminescence events, we found that PCA was positively related to bioluminescence events which provide strong support that bioluminescence represents a key element in predator-prey interactions. Conference Object Elephant Seals Southern Elephant Seals Southern Ocean DIAL@UCLouvain (Université catholique de Louvain) |
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DIAL@UCLouvain (Université catholique de Louvain) |
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ftunivlouvain |
language |
English |
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3123 QH301 |
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3123 QH301 Mallefet, Jérôme Vacquié-Garcia, Jade Bailleul , Frédéric Guinet , Christophe 21st Benelux Congress of Zoology Are southern elephant seals attracted by the bioluminescence of lantern fishes in the deep dark of thesouthern Ocean? |
topic_facet |
3123 QH301 |
description |
Bioluminescence, the emission of visible light by living organism, is mostly found in the deep ocean where it is used to avoid or help predation as well as communication between conspecifics. This work is based on the hypothesis that bioluminescence could also be used by predators, here the southern elephant seals (SES), to locate their prey. It has been shown that SES are endowed with a vision adapted to low light intensity with a peak sensitivity at 479 nm, matching not only the wavelength of natural light at depth but also the bioluminescent spectrum of most mesopelagic organisms. Lantern fishes represent the biggest biomass in the southern ocean and are known to be SES’s main prey. In this work, we aimed to reveal that Prey Catch Attempts (PCA) might be related to bioluminescent events. By stimulating the bioluminescence of lantern fishes trawled during Mycto 3D expedition (MD197) and by analysing diving behaviour of three satellite-tracked females equipped with high sampling rate Time-Depth-Light 3D-accelerometers and magnetometers recorders (MK10-X and DDT) we were able (i) to link the number of Prey Catch Attempts (PCA), assessed from the processing of accelerometer data, with the number of detected bioluminescence events; (ii) to assess if SES modified trajectory and performed PCA in relation to bioluminescence events; (iii) to measure bioluminescence characteristics of several lantern fishes species. Results revealed that lantern fishes produced a blue luminescence (450nm) and although PCA could take place in absence of bioluminescence events, we found that PCA was positively related to bioluminescence events which provide strong support that bioluminescence represents a key element in predator-prey interactions. |
author2 |
UCL - SST/ELI/ELIB - Biodiversity |
format |
Conference Object |
author |
Mallefet, Jérôme Vacquié-Garcia, Jade Bailleul , Frédéric Guinet , Christophe 21st Benelux Congress of Zoology |
author_facet |
Mallefet, Jérôme Vacquié-Garcia, Jade Bailleul , Frédéric Guinet , Christophe 21st Benelux Congress of Zoology |
author_sort |
Mallefet, Jérôme |
title |
Are southern elephant seals attracted by the bioluminescence of lantern fishes in the deep dark of thesouthern Ocean? |
title_short |
Are southern elephant seals attracted by the bioluminescence of lantern fishes in the deep dark of thesouthern Ocean? |
title_full |
Are southern elephant seals attracted by the bioluminescence of lantern fishes in the deep dark of thesouthern Ocean? |
title_fullStr |
Are southern elephant seals attracted by the bioluminescence of lantern fishes in the deep dark of thesouthern Ocean? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Are southern elephant seals attracted by the bioluminescence of lantern fishes in the deep dark of thesouthern Ocean? |
title_sort |
are southern elephant seals attracted by the bioluminescence of lantern fishes in the deep dark of thesouthern ocean? |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/169198 |
genre |
Elephant Seals Southern Elephant Seals Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Elephant Seals Southern Elephant Seals Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
boreal:169198 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/169198 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
_version_ |
1799479307887706112 |