GEOTHERMAL ENERGY Geothermal power (from the Greek words geo, meaning earth, and therme, meaning heat)

is energy generated by heat stored beneath the Earth's surface.

Erupting volcanoes SCHEME:

NUCLEAR ENERGY Nuclear energy is energy in the nucleus (core) of an atom. Nuclear energy can be used to make electricity. But first the energy must be released. It can be released from atoms in two ways: nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. In nuclear fusion, energy is released when atoms are combined or fused together to form a larger atom. This is how the sun produces energy. In nuclear fission, atoms are split apart to form smaller atoms, releasing energy. Nuclear power plants use nuclear fission to produce electricity.

Two nuclear reactors in Burke County, Georgia.

HYDROELECTRIC ENERGY HydrOelectric energy is a clean, renewable and reliable energy source which converts kinetic energy from falling water into electricity, without consuming more water than is produced by nature. The potential energy stored in a body of water held at a given height is converted to kinetic energy (movement energy) which is used to turn a turbine and create electricity.

Itaipu Dam on the Brazil-Paraguay border located on the Paran River SCHEME:

Ice Harbor Dam

Partial List of Bioluminescent Organisms This list is intended to give an idea of the diversity of bioluminescent creatures. If an organism is listed here, it means that at least one species in that group is luminescent. The list is not meant to be comprehensive, and there may be other luminous creatures that are not included here. Bacteria Common in seawater and in the guts of organisms. Also used in the lure of Anglerfish and in the ventral counterillumination of the bobtail squid (Euprymna scolopes)

Fungi Marine species not known to be luminous, but cause "foxfire" when certain species grow on wood.

Dinoflagellates (single-celled phytoplankton) If you see luminous sparkles in the wake of a boat, or in splashing waves on the beach, it is probably coming from dinoflagellates. These single-celled protists can be photosynthetic, or they may be heterotrophic (eat other organisms), or some combination of the two. They may become very abundant during red tides, and are thought to use their light as a burglar alarm to attract predators to animals that are grazing on them.

Radiolarians (single-celled marine protists) Common in shallow oceanic gyres and in deep oceans, these single-celled organisms are like amoebe living in glass houses. Surprisingly, they use calcium-activated photoproteins much like hydromedusae.

Cnidaria Bioluminescence is widespread in all major Cnidarian groups except for the Cubozoa. Different species employ photoproteins or a variety of luciferases to trigger luminescence from coelenterazine. The luminous groups include Scyphozoa ("true" jellyfish), Hydrozoa (hydroids, siphonophores, and hydromedusae), and Anthozoa (sea pens and sea pansies).

Ctenophores Comb Jellies are almost all bioluminescent, with the exception of the sea-gooseberry, Pleurobrachia, and some benthic species. Like hydrozoa, they use photoproteins with coelenterazine to make light. Some species secrete luminous material into the water when disturbed.

Nemertean Worms One species of interstitial ribbon worm is known to have luminous symbionts. Mollusca An impressive variety of molluscs are able to make light. From the only freshwater limpet (1 type) to a few types of nudibranchs and clams, luminescence has evolved several times in this phylum alone. The cephalopods have the most advanced luminescence systems, and some squids may have three or more types of luminous organs. Even a few pelagic octopods have gotten into the game.

Squid

Pelagic octopod

Annelid Worms Within the segmented worms, many types of marine polychaetes, both benthic and pelagic, produce light. Some interesting examples include the "fireworms" which use luminescence as part of their mating display, and Tomopteris, which makes yellow light. On land, some oligochaetes (earthworms) are even able to produce luminous secretions.

Polychaete

Pycnogonids (Sea Spiders) Crustaceans Most pelagic crustacean groups (with the exception of isopods) have luminous members. These include copepods, ostracods, amphipods, decapod shrimp and euphausiids (krill). Amazingly, three of the major marine luciferins are used in various crustaceans (ostracod-type luciferin, dinoflagellate-type luciferin, coelenterazine). Crustaceans are also the most likely source for coelenterazine in the sea, as there is evidence that they can produce it.

Chaetognaths At least one species of deep-sea arrow-worms has been shown to be bioluminescent. Interestingly, it also uses coelenterazine to make its light.

Echinoderms Within the echinoderms, luminescence is prominent among brittle-stars (Ophiuroids) and sea cucumbers (Holothuroids), but there are even some sea stars (Asteroidea) which can make light. Hemichordate Worms They too are luminous. The most commonly found is the enteropneust tornaria (larva) of a hemichordate worm. Urochordates Luminescence have probably arisen at least three times in the urochordates, because it

takes different forms in the different groups. Pyrosomes produce very bright, long-lasting light which can be stimulated by flashes of light. They are suspected to use bacteria to glow. One benthic tunicate is luminous, and most larvaceans embed luminous particles into their mucus "houses."

Larvacean (without its house) Chordates Many kinds of fish are covered in photophores. They use them for counterillumination, defense, and finding food. Some even have evolved a combination of intrinsic and bacterial light organs. A few sharks, such as the cookie-cutter shark, have luminous organs (left), and the enigmatic "Megamouth" (right) is said to have photophores on the inside of its mouth.

Myctophid lanternfish

Hatchetfish

Terrestrial Arthropods In addition to the familiar fireflies, luminescence appears in a variety of terrestrial arthropods. These include Centipedes and Millipedes, and Insects such as click Beetles, Fungus gnats, Collembola (spring-tails), and Railroad worms. [NOTE: There are no known luminous "flowering" plants, birds, reptiles, amphibians or mammals. It is largely a marine phenomenon.] Why Red? Many deep-sea animals appear to have conspicuous red coloration, especially surrounding their stomachs. Why do they do this, and how do they get away with appearing so conspicuous without being devoured by predators? By the time it reaches the deep-sea, light has been filtered to blue-green wavelengths. In addition, nearly all bioluminescence has the same wavelength as the downwelling light. Things look red because they absorb everything except red light. Specifically, they absorb blue light. Having a red stomach means that you are absorbing any blue light, which your dinner is emitting.

Special Functions: Prey Attraction Siphonophores Of all the luminous organisms in the sea, only a few are thought to use light to lure prey, and fewer still have been known to make red light. Recently, a siphonophore has been discovered that does both: it uses small glowing "lures" to attract prey.

So what is a siphonophore? Siphonophores are in the phylum Cnidaria, which includes corals (Anthozoa), and the familiar "true" jellyfish (Scyphozoa). Siphonophores are within the Hydrozoa, which includes hydroids that grow on rocks, as well as the small and transparent jellies called hydromedusae. They are not, as some might tell you, colonies of single-celled organisms, nor do they "come together" to form a colony. For our purposes, it is easiest to consider them as a single "superorganism", which grows by budding off specialized polyps and medusae (Figure 4). (Coloniality comes in when you consider the polyps as individuals.) Each type of polyp has a special function, including feeding, buoyancy, propulsion, and reproduction.

Figure 4. Siphonophores can be considered as "superorganisms", which grow by budding off specialized polyps and medusae. Each type of polyp has a special function, including feeding, buoyancy, propulsion, and reproduction.

Siphonophore Feeding Of special interest here are the feeding polyps, known as gastrozooids. In the genus Erenna, each gastrozooid has a tentacle that branches off of it from the base. This tentacle, in turn, has side branches called tentilla, which hold the stinging cells. Figure 5 shows an electron micrograph of the tip of one of these tentilla. The tubular capsules are the stinging cells.

Figure 5. In the genus Erenna, each gastrozooid (feeding polyps) has a tentacle that branches off of it from the base. This tentacle, in turn, has side branches called tentilla, which hold the stinging cells.

Most siphonophores catch prey by putting out their long tentacles and waiting for something to bump into their tentilla -- think of a spider web, which is also laced with stingers. But not all siphs operate in this way. Using MBARI's deep-diving remotely operated vehicles, we found a new species in the genus Erenna. Siphonophores like Erenna, especially the new species in question, don't seem to follow this same passive mode of operation. When seen from a submersible, this species holds its tentacles close to its body. On the face of it, this would not seem to be an efficient feeding strategy. What makes this species more unusual is that it is known to feed only on fish, and it lives more than 1600 meters deep, where fish and other organisms are relatively scarce. So without a web, how does it catch its food? A clue is found in the arrangement and "behavior" of the tentacle side branches, shown in Figure 6. The side branches include a large battery of stinging cells attached to a central stalk. Several examples of these are shown at the right of Figure 6. At the end of the transparent stalk is a red "lure" which starts out small with a white center. The white material consists of bioluminescent material. As the small lure matures, it gets larger and the white material becomes surrounded by red fluorescent material.

Figure 6. Tentacles of siphonophores. Based on the emission and excitation spectra of this red substance, blue light emitted at the center of the lure would be expected to excite the fluor and produce orange-red light. This wavelength of light is very unusual in the ocean for two reasons. One is that it doesn't penetrate very far: meters or several centimeters rather than tens of meters. Because red light is rare, it is not surprising that the eyes of deep-sea organisms have only rarely been found to be sensitive to red light. The lures are not just capable of producing light, but the transparent stalk also contracts rapidly to flick the lure. This behavior is eerily similar to the motion of many deep-sea copepods. Often they are seen to do a "hop and sink" behavior where they alternate between rapid jumps and slow sinking behavior. If a copepod-eating fish were able to see the motion of the lure, it would almost certainly be a tempting target! For a jellyfish to have a lure is unusual enough; only anglerfish and a few squid have been suspected to use luminescence as a lure in the sea. But because so few fish see red light, there is additional resistance to the idea of a jelly using long-wavelength light in its luminous lure. The most likely target species for this deep-living siphonophore are small (few centimeter long) bristlemouth fish in the family Gonostomatidae. Because the deep sea is so vast -about 10x larger than the next-largest habitable volume -- the most common of these fish, Cyclothone, is probably the most common vertebrate on the entire planet. Despite its abundance, its visual pigments have never been measured; their eyes are extremely small and they are too fragile for many deep-sea trawling operations. If any fish were to

"slip through the cracks" of our scientific knowledge and have a hidden ability to see red light, then Cyclothone would be a great candidate. Even if we accept that this ability might go undetected, this still leaves the question of why a deep-sea fish would need to detect red light. One possibility is that it is using the ability to detect prey. Red fluorescent material (Figure 7), especially derived from plant chlorophyll, is common in the ocean, including the deep sea. Marine snow from more than 2000m deep still produces red fluorescence when illuminated with blue light. With a yellow filter in their eye, or visual pigments able to distinguish short and long wavelength light, a fish would see anything red as a conspicuous target over short distances. Light to excite fluorescence would have to come from ambient blue light (at shallower depths) or from bioluminescence itself.

Figure 7. Fluroescence of Erenna tentilla. The use of a dim red lure in the deep sea is almost impossible to observe undisturbed. Any illumination would obviously affect the visual environment, and a low-light camera would be hard pressed to find these rare siphonophores, let alone document a feeding event. Nonetheless the most conservative interpretation of the evidence seems to be that this jelly dangles red lures to attract its prey. If more specimens can be obtained, there are many avenues for further study of this special function of bioluminescence. Conclusions Bioluminescence has evolved more than 40 times, and in some phyla such as Mollusca and Annelida, chemical reactions that produce light have evolved independently at least three times. As complex as it seems to make biological light, it must not be that difficult, because it has happened so many times. On the other hand, bioluminescence must serve important ecological roles, given its widespread taxononic distribution in the ocean. Many fascinating questions remain to be answered, including many uncharacterized luminescence chemistries, and a range of ecological functions.