July 18, 2013

A research connects deep-sea bioluminescence with dense water formation in the Mediterranean Sea



Permanent deep-sea’s darkness is sometimes lightened by biogenic light blooms, a phenomenon so-called ‘deep-sea bioluminescence’. It is the ability of numerous marine organisms to emit light by chemical processes. According to an article published on the journal PLOS ONE, based on an inter-disciplinary research carried out with ANTARES telescope —the first underwater equipment to detect high energy neutrinos—, deep-sea bioluminescence blooms are connected with dense water formation. The article, signed by an international group composed by more than 150 experts, was coordinated by Miquel Canals, professor from the Department of Stratigraphy, Paleontology and Marine Geosciences at the Faculty of Geology of the UB, affliliated centre with the campus of international excellence BKC, and the experts Christian Tamburini and Stéphanie Escoffier, from Aix-Marseille University, and Xavier Durrieu de Madron, from the University of Perpignan.