The dark side of Oman’s night-time bioluminescence

{"text":[[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":8.67,"text":"It’s one of the most magical phenomena in nature — night-time bioluminescence, an unearthly blue sparkle that illuminates breaking waves and smears twinkling light across the shore, as if all the stars in the universe had been condensed into a celestial paste. "}],[{"start":22.05,"text":"But where an untrained eye enjoys an enchanting light show, scientist Joaquim Goes sees an alarming and mysterious organism. "},{"start":28.842,"text":"It’s one he has chronicled for two and a half decades and whose extraordinary rise in the Arabian Sea, his research has found, is linked to climate change. "}],[{"start":37.230000000000004,"text":"“It’s beautiful to see on the surface, but the sad thing is people do not know what is going on below,” says Goes, a research professor at Columbia University’s Climate School. "},{"start":46.622,"text":"“This organism is telling us a story, that things are changing. ”"}],[{"start":51.06,"text":"Noctiluca scintillans, or “sea sparkle”, has two faces. "},{"start":55.377,"text":"While it bedazzles in the dark, it’s responsible for a reeking green carpet of algae by day. "},{"start":60.444,"text":"Every year, the stuff covers an area the size of 1.8mn square kilometres in the Arabian Sea, nearly three times the size of Texas. "},{"start":68.562,"text":"Yet 25 years ago, large blooms of Noctiluca had never even been seen in the Arabian Sea. "}],[{"start":75.14,"text":"Oman takes Noctiluca seriously. "},{"start":77.819,"text":"The green gunk snarls up desalination plants that produce drinkable water in the arid country, and aboard vessels. "},{"start":83.962,"text":"Most fish are not keen on eating Noctiluca, but jellyfish do, and they also get stuck in desalination machinery. "}],[{"start":91.37,"text":"Perhaps even more worryingly, Goes and his colleagues argue Noctiluca has outcompeted members of the local food chain, namely the tiny types of plankton that teeny fish larvae eat. "},{"start":100.974,"text":"While he does not have the raw data to prove it yet, Goes worries that this disruption potentially imperils fish stocks upon which Oman depends. "}],[{"start":109.26,"text":"“The food chain has been short-circuited,” explains Goes. "}],[{"start":113.56,"text":"Back to Noctiluca. "},{"start":115.364,"text":"The reasons for its strange flourishing are complex, but a selection of freakish features have made it uniquely adapted to live in a sea that is becoming short on inorganic nitrate (which is important for life), low in oxygen and more acidic because of the Arabian Sea’s warming, according to Goes. "}],[{"start":130.94,"text":"His research has found that the shifting nitrate and oxygen levels in the Arabian Sea is caused by changing weather — fuelled by snow cover loss in the Himalayas. "}],[{"start":139.54,"text":"Glowing in the dark isn’t even the strangest thing about Noctiluca, which comes from a gang of incredibly tiny living things called dinoflagellates, which move about by wriggling a little tail. "}],[{"start":150.07999999999998,"text":"Being a single-celled organism hasn’t stopped Noctiluca developing a sort of internal greenhouse that fills up with a symbiotic algae, which give it fuel to grow and survive, and lends it the manky green daytime colour. "},{"start":161.60899999999998,"text":"If you’re wondering how the algae gets into that inner greenhouse, so are scientists — it’s one of Noctiluca’s many as yet unsolved riddles. "}],[{"start":169.2,"text":"Lastly, Noctiluca is endowed with sexual reproduction, which means it can spawn far faster than rivals that divide to replicate themselves. "}],[{"start":178.13,"text":"Noctiluca’s “continued range expansion represents a significant and growing threat for regional fisheries and the welfare of coastal populations dependent on the Arabian Sea for sustenance,” wrote Goes and his colleagues in a 2020 paper. "}],[{"start":190.57,"text":"And its stinky-by-day, glittery-by-night march continues. "},{"start":194.412,"text":"Goes has been alerted to Noctiluca’s arrival as far as the Gulf, in Emirati waters. "}],[{"start":200.26999999999998,"text":"After two decades of observation, Goes and his team are going on the offensive against Noctiluca, trying to find ways to halt its spread. "},{"start":207.82399999999998,"text":"Working with Omani authorities, they are developing early warning systems, using measurements at sea to predict when Noctiluca blooms might spread. "},{"start":215.529,"text":"And now the scientist says they’re testing a blend of naturally occurring minerals that chokes off Noctiluca blooms, without affecting other organisms, to “control the fire before it spreads”. "}],[{"start":226.17,"text":"Watching jumping fish agitating Noctiluca into sparkles on an Omani beach, you could be forgiven for hoping Goes and his team do not succeed. "},{"start":233.899,"text":"But if their work teaches us anything, it’s that all that glitters is not good. "}],[{"start":237.75,"text":""}]],"url":"https://creatives.ftacademy.cn/album/152865-1714610440.mp3"}