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Living Light

Bibliography

Sources

This site is a literature synthesis, not original fieldwork. Figures such as “76% of animals in the water column” are taken from the papers below. Images on the site are generated illustrations in a documentary style — they are not field photographs.

  1. 01

    Martini, S., & Haddock, S. H. D. (2017). Quantification of bioluminescence from the surface to the deep sea demonstrates its predominance as an ecological trait. Scientific Reports, 7, 45750.

    Used for: The 76% figure, and the finding that the proportion of glowing animals is similar from the surface to 4,000 m.

    Open source

  2. 02

    Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. (2017). New study shows that three quarters of deep-sea animals make their own light.

    Used for: Plain-language summary of Martini & Haddock, including the ~50% figure for fishes and cephalopods and 97–99% for cnidarians.

    Open source

  3. 03

    Haddock, S. H. D., Moline, M. A., & Case, J. F. (2010). Bioluminescence in the sea. Annual Review of Marine Science, 2, 443–493.

    Used for: Marine chemistry, functions of light, and the observation that ~80% of luminous species are marine.

    Open source

  4. 04

    Widder, E. A. (2010). Bioluminescence in the ocean: Origins of biological, chemical, and ecological diversity. Science, 328(5979), 704–708.

    Used for: Overview of ecological roles and diversity of marine light.

    Open source

  5. 05

    Kaskova, Z. M., Tsarkova, A. S., & Yampolsky, I. V. (2016/2019 reviews). Brief reviews of bioluminescent systems.

    Used for: Independent origins, known luciferin structures, and the scale of ~10,000 luminous species in ~800 genera.

    Open source

  6. 06

    The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008. Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, Roger Y. Tsien — green fluorescent protein.

    Used for: Aequorea victoria, aequorin, and GFP as a research tool.

    Open source

  7. 07

    Encyclopaedia Britannica. Bioluminescence.

    Used for: Firefly ATP mechanism and the general luciferin–luciferase reaction.

    Open source

  8. 08

    Claes, J. M., et al. (2024). Systematic distribution of bioluminescence in marine animals: a species-level inventory. Frontiers / related inventory papers.

    Used for: Updated counts of luminescent marine genera and species.

    Open source

If you reuse this investigation, keep the citations. The science is other people’s work; the site is a way of presenting it.