Polarization Patterns of Cloudy Skies and Animal Orientation

Horváth, Gábor; Varjú, Dezsö

doi:10.1007/978-3-662-09387-0_6

Cited by 26 publications

(49 citation statements)

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“…Even though there are no natural light sources that produce significant amounts of polarized light visible at the earth's surface, linearly polarized light is abundant in natural scenes 3 . In terrestrial environments, the frequently complex appearance of polarization due to atmospheric scattering and the reflection from shiny surfaces of leaves and water limits the utility of polarization signaling.…”

Section: Photic Environments That Favor the Use Of Visual Signals Basmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polarization signals in mantis shrimps

et al. 2009

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While color signals are well known as a form of animal communication, a number of animals communicate using signals based on patterns of polarized light reflected from specialized body parts or structures. Mantis shrimps, a group of marine crustaceans, have evolved a great diversity of such signals, several of which are based on photonic structures. These include resonant scattering devices, structures based on layered dichroic molecules, and structures that use birefringent layers to produce circular polarization. Such biological polarizers operate in different spectral regions ranging from the near-UV to medium wavelengths of visible light. In addition to the structures that are specialized for signal production, the eyes of many species of mantis shrimp are adapted to detect linearly polarized light in the ultraviolet and in the green, using specialized sets of photoreceptors with oriented, dichroic visual pigments. Finally, a few mantis shrimp species produce biophotonic retarders within their photoreceptors that permit the detection of circularly polarized light and are thus the only animals known to sense this form of polarization. Mantis shrimps use polarized light in species-specific signals related to mating and territorial defense, and their means of manipulating light's polarization can inspire designs for artificial polarizers and achromatic retarders.

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Section: Photic Environments That Favor the Use Of Visual Signals Basmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polarization signals in mantis shrimps

et al. 2009

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“…To date, visual systems that can detect many of the physical properties of the light, such as the intensity (brightness vision), the direction of propogation (image-forming vision), as well as the wavelength or spectrum of light (color vision), can all be found in nature. Moreover, since the retinal is a dichroic molecule, visual systems which are able to align their retinal molecules, such as those rhabdomeric photoreceptors commonly found in cephalopods or arthropods, have the ability to discriminate the evector angle of light (polarization vision) 4 .…”

Section: Visual Systems Sustaining the Polarized Light Communication mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…un-polarized), natural light can be converted into plane-polarized light by scattering or reflection in both terrestrial and aquatic environments 4 . Because of the predictable relationship between the e-vector angle, position of the light source (e.g.…”

Section: Visual Systems Sustaining the Polarized Light Communication mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…the water surface), animals equipped with polarization vision take advantage of it to find water surface [5][6][7] , or to navigate [8][9][10] . Besides, whether or not an object is polarized or even transparent, polarization vision can extend the range of object detection for both natural and artificial visual systems 4,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] . Since polarization vision is not available to all animals, polarized light signals fulfill the need not only of communication but also concealment from potential predators and prey.…”

Section: Visual Systems Sustaining the Polarized Light Communication mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although water has a higher density than does air, and thus supports more particles in a given volume, light scattered in either environment will become polarized 4,36,37 . Still, due to selective absorption of light by solutes, suspended particles, as well as water molecules themselves 38,39 , the spectrum of light in the underwater environment changes rapidly.…”

Section: Lighting Environments Expediting the Polarized Light Communimentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fine structure and optical properties of biological polarizers in crustaceans and cephalopods

et al. 2008

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The lighting of the underwater environment is constantly changing due to attenuation by water, scattering by suspended particles, as well as the refraction and reflection caused by the surface waves. These factors pose a great challenge for marine animals which communicate through visual signals, especially those based on color. To escape this problem, certain cephalopod mollusks and stomatopod crustaceans utilize the polarization properties of light. While the mechanisms behind the polarization vision of these two animal groups are similar, several distinctive types of polarizers (i.e. the structure producing the signal) have been found in these animals. To gain a better knowledge of how these polarizers function, we studied the relationships between fine structures and optical properties of four types of polarizers found in cephalopods and stomatopods. Although all the polarizers share a somewhat similar spectral range, around 450-550 nm, the reflectance properties of the signals and the mechanisms used to produce them have dramatic differences. In cephalopods, stack-plates polarizers produce the polarization patterns found on the arms and around their eyes. In stomatopods, we have found one type of beam-splitting polarizer based on photonic structures and two absorptive polarizer types based on dichroic molecules. These stomatopod polarizers may be found on various appendages, and on the cuticle covering dorsal or lateral sides of the animal. Since the efficiencies of all these polarizer types are somewhat sensitive to the change of illumination and viewing angle, how these animals compensate with different behaviors or fine structural features of the polarizer also varies.

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An apposition‐like compound eye with a layered rhabdom in the small diving beetle Agabus japonicus (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae)

Jia

Liang

2014

Journal of Morphology

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The fine structure of the compound eyes of the adult diving beetle Agabus japonicus is described with light, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy. The eye of A. japonicus is mango-shaped and consists of about 985 ommatidia. Each ommatidium is composed of a corneal facet lens, an eucone type of crystalline cone, a fused layered rhabdom with a basal rhabdomere, seven retinula cells (including six distal cells and one basal cell), two primary pigment cells and an undetermined number of secondary pigment cells that are restricted to the distalmost region of the eye. A clear-zone, separating dioptric apparatus from photoreceptive structures, is not developed and the eye thus resembles an apposition eye. The cross-sectional areas of the rhabdoms are relatively large indicative of enhanced light-sensitivity. The distal and central region of the rhabdom is layered with interdigitating microvilli suggesting polarization sensitivity. According to the features mentioned above, we suggest that 1) the eye, seemingly of the apposition type, occurs in a taxon for which the clear-zone (superposition) eye is characteristic; 2) the eye possesses adaptations to function in a dim-light environment; 3) the eye may be sensitive to underwater polarized light or linearly water-reflected polarized light.

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Polarization Patterns of Cloudy Skies and Animal Orientation

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

Polarization signals in mantis shrimps

Polarization signals in mantis shrimps

Fine structure and optical properties of biological polarizers in crustaceans and cephalopods

An apposition‐like compound eye with a layered rhabdom in the small diving beetle Agabus japonicus (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae)

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