E-Mail
IMAGE: The research team collects samples during a 2015 cruise in the North Pacific. Co-author Bryndan Durham, center, recovers the sampling instrument. The gray bottles open and close at specific depths. view more
Credit: Dror Shitrit/Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology
Just as plants and animals on land are keenly attuned to the hours of sunlight in the day, life in the oceans follows the rhythms of the day, the seasons and even the moon. A University of Washington study finds the biological light switches that make this possible.
Single-celled organisms in the open ocean use a diverse array of genetic tools to detect light, even in tiny amounts, and respond, according to a study published Feb. 1 in the