Life Below
The Rainbow on a Comb Jelly Is Not the Same as Making Light
A moving ribbon of rainbow colour can make a comb jelly look electrically illuminated. Before calling every bright marine display bioluminescence, ask…
Follow the water
Life Below
Meet the habitats and living systems beneath coastal waters.
Life Below
An Octopus Changes More Than the Colour of a Flat Surface
An octopus blending into a rough background is doing something more interesting than choosing a matching paint. Its visible appearance involves different…
Life Below
The Familiar Jellyfish Bell May Be Only One Stage of the Life Cycle
A bell-shaped jellyfish drifting through water is an easy form to recognise. A life-cycle diagram may introduce a very different-looking attached stage,…
Life Below
A Sponge Can Be an Animal Without Looking Like One in Motion
A branching shape attached to the seabed may look plant-like in a photograph. Appearance alone is a poor guide to the way an organism lives, and marine…
Life Below
A Whale Fall Is a Food Arrival with a Long Afterlife
The death of a whale can connect life near the surface with communities far below it. If the carcass reaches the seabed, it becomes a concentrated arrival…
Life Below
Underwater Light Can Help an Animal Become Harder to See
Making light sounds like a reliable way to attract attention. In the ocean, the relationship can be more surprising: light produced beneath an animal can…
Life Below
Coral Spawning Moves Part of the Reef’s Story into Open Water
A coral colony appears firmly attached to the reef, but some stages of coral reproduction take place away from that fixed setting. Broadcast spawning is one…
Life Below
A Sea Star’s Movement Happens Under Its Familiar Outline
A sea star can look almost stationary from above while its underside is busy. The familiar star-shaped outline is only one part of understanding how the…