Sight and blindness: The relationship between ostracod eyes, water depth, and light availability in the Arctic Ocean
Journal
Limnology and Oceanography
Series/Report No.
Limnology and Oceanography
Journal Volume
69
Journal Issue
6
Start Page
1418
End Page
1428
ISSN
0024-3590
1939-5590
Date Issued
2024-06-01
Author(s)
Zhang, Jingwen
Yasuhara, Moriaki
Tian, Skye Yunshu
Aye, Kyawt K. T.
Gemery, Laura
Cronin, Thomas M.
Frenzel, Peter
Horne, David J.
DOI
10.1002/lno.12584
Abstract
Eye loss has been a long-standing interest in evolutionary biology. Many organisms that inhabit environments without light penetration, for example the deep sea, exhibit eye loss and thus become blind. However, water-depth distribution of eyes in marine organisms is poorly understood. Ostracods are widely distributed crustaceans, and many sighted marine ostracods have eye tubercles (lenses) on their shells. Since eye tubercles are visible on the shells illustrated in much literature, it is easy to determine their presence or absence via a literature survey. Here, we used a large Arctic-wide ostracod census dataset (Arctic Ostracode Database) to calculate the eye index (the percentage of species with eyes), and compare them with water depth and light availability. As water depth increases, eye index values decrease and become constantly zero in water deeper than 1000 m. Similar decline of sighted species with increasing depth is also known in isopods and amphipods, suggesting that it may be common in other crustaceans and perhaps in deep-sea organisms in general. We also show that eye index values increase as light availability increases. This study is the first to quantify how distributions of sighted and blind species change with light availability, giving baseline information on vision in the deep sea. © 2024 The Authors. Limnology and Oceanography published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.
Subjects
crustacean
deep-sea organism
eye
light availability
ostracod
population distribution
vision
water depth
Publisher
Wiley
Type
journal article