Alchemists of the Ocean

The project Alchemists of the Ocean is a series of waking dreams that serve as windows into the living world within the ocean. The images act as an invitation to a visual feast of the significance, phenomenon and beauty of this sunken world. I create these images through a process of multi-layering of hand-made photographs of light. The appearance of oxygen bubbles and the allusion of macroalgae within one of the works served as a catalyst for the project to materialise.   This experience inspired me to explore the foundations of the food chain up and down the ocean column that depend on the chemical reactions they perform and the symbiotic relationships for their survival. Boundless chemical reactions, adapted over eons, result in explosions of color and light that take place at the base of the food chain .    

Kelp

Kelp, an algae, is at the epicentre of our ocean rainforests known by marine scientists as The Lungs of the Sea create 50% of our oxygen through the process of photosynethesis where water, carbon dioxide and sunlight are converted into sugar and oxygen that algae feeds on.   During the photosynthetic process they also sequester carbon and helps to stabilise how much carbon there is in the atomosphere. Kelp is found on 10% of the ocean’s coastline.  Some kelp such as the giant kelp are extremely fast growers, in ideal conditions, sometimes growing up to 2 feet a day.  Found in the southern pacific coast of the USA.

Coral

Coral Reefs provide habitat for at least 25% of the world’s marine life and cover 1% of the world’s oceans. Coral is a sessile invertebrae (rooted in one place) relies on a simbiotic relationship with an algae, zooxanthellae, in order for the former to grow. This phenomenon is one of the most imporant mutulistic relationships within the coral reef ecosystem. The algae photosynthesises, converting sunlight and oxygen into food (sugars) for the coral that contributes vastly to it’s growth and health. In exchange the waste from the coral is a nutrient for the algae. The coral also shelters the algae from predators.

Coral not only live in the shallow waters of the ocean but there are also deep sea corals that have adapted to no light conditions where the waters are extemely cold below a temperature of 30f. Because they do not need sunlight or warm waters for survival they are found in a wide distribution of the world’s oceans. There are 31,000 species of deep sea coral that has been recently discovered including in the antarctic. These corals get their energy and nutrients from trapping tiny organisms on passing currents.

In shallow waters, coral can glow a brilliant pink and purple.  These colors act as a kind of sunscreen as confirmed by Jorg Widenmann, a coral reef scientist at University of Southampton. In deeper waters, corals turn red/orange or green against a dim blue background - a fluorescence. The view is most unforgettable at night with a flashlight and mask filter, when the fluorescent corals provide a “psychedelic adventure.”   Jorg Widenmann and his team from the UOS have figured that the fluorescent protein allows the coral to absorb light converting blue light into orange, red or green light that penetrates deep into the coral tissue where the algae lives and converting this light, through photosynthesis, into food for the coral’s survival.  Some deep sea coral has survived over 4,000 years

Plankton

Microorganisms such as the plankton, dinoflagellates, also photosynthesise as well as create their own light for defence purposes.  The term used for this glow that shows up at night is bioluminescence.  Dinoflagellate flashes of light that causes a startle response in their predators, disrupting their feeding behavior and resulting in a decrease in grazing rate by reducing the number of dinoflagellates consumed. Dinoflagellate bioluminescence is also thought to act as a “burglar alarm” to attract a secondary predator that threatens to eat the primary predator such as copepods (crustaceans) and they can detect their approach and turn up the light when needed.

Bobtail Squid

The bacteria Vibrio Fischeri also bioluminese and the bobtail squid relies on them for survival.  Shortly after hatching, the squid recruits these bacteria from seawater, and so the symbiotic relationship begins. A series of molecular and physiological interactions ensure only Vibrio fischeri successfully colonizes the organ while excluding other microbes. The glowing bacteria is needed by the squid for camouflagic reasons, hiding the squid’s silhouette by matching the amount of light hitting the top of the squid’s body (mantle) when seen from below. In exchange, the bacteria is fed a sugar and amino acid solution made by the squid. 

The term is bioluminesce when their eyespots are unable to detect light.  in exchange it gives the bacteria food.of the squid that helps it palso needs to  to survive.

Atolla Jellyfish