Hydrodynamic Stimulation of Plankton Bioluminescence

Fish do it. Dolphins do it. Swimmers do it. Surface ships do it. In fact, the last German U-boat detected in the Great War was sunk because it did it. What they all do is create flow fields energetic enough to create bioluminescent "footprints." Because bioluminescent organisms are ubiquitous (particularly dinoflagellates, common members of marine plankton) flow-stimulated light emission represents an operational threat to U.S. Navy nighttime operations. Conversely, bioluminescence presents opportunities, particularly in coastal waters where acoustic opportunities are severely limited, to detect an adversary’s nighttime motion beneath the ocean surface. To address these issues, we have empirically derived response "calibrations" of luminescent dinoflagellates in several wellcharacterized flow fields. For the first time, this process allows one to predict which flows should be stimulatory and to predict the size of the corresponding bioluminescent "footprint," given the hydrodynamic properties of the flow. Current bioluminescence studies will help the Navy use its large meteorological database of bioluminescent potential measurements for prediction and aid oceanographers in their attempt to visualize and quantify naturally occurring flow fields. Hydrodynamic Stimulation of Plankton Bioluminescence Jim Rohr, Greg Anderson