Natural Scenes and the Design of the Color Visual Systems of Marine Animals

克罗宁9724028颜色与整个动物王国的视觉密切相关。颜色视觉在识别配偶或竞争对手，以及决定对捕食者和猎物的伪装效果方面发挥着关键作用。使用颜色的视觉系统都是在自然场景中光的属性的背景下进化的；这些光谱属性定义了动物眼睛中生物上有用的颜色感受器阵列的潜在限制。海洋动物有时缺乏颜色视觉，但在最复杂的形式中，一些甲壳类动物有多达12个光谱感受器类别，远远超过任何已知的陆地动物。该项目分析了这些复杂甲壳类动物生活的自然水下场景的光谱和空间特性，以及这些动物在物种内部和物种之间使用的基于颜色的交流信号系统。这些结果将有助于回答来自它们多种光谱类型的受体的集成信息如何使它们能够利用海洋中的颜色视觉。这项研究将提供一个有价值的案例，将水生无脊椎动物与陆地上的颜色视觉及其在昆虫、鸟类和灵长类中的进化进行比较。它可能会在感官科学之外，对海洋生物学、进化和生态学领域以及遥感设备的设计产生影响。

Cronin 9724028 Color is intimately linked to vision throughout the animal kingdom. Color vision can play key roles in recognition of mates or competitors, and in determining effectiveness of camouflage for predators and prey. Visual systems using color have all evolved in the context of the properties of the light in natural scenes; these spectral properties define the potential limits of biologically useful arrays of color receptors in the eyes of animals. Marine animals sometimes lack color vision, but in the most complex forms, some crustaceans have as many as a dozen spectral receptor classes, far more than in any known terrestrial animals. This project analyzes the spectral and spatial properties of natural underwater scenes where these complex crustaceans live, and the signaling systems that these animals use in color-based communication within and between species. The results will help answer how the integrated information from their many spectral types of receptors enables them to exploit color vision in the sea. This study will provide a valuable case of an aquatic invertebrate to compare to terrestrial color vision and its evolution in insects, birds and primates. It is likely to have an impact beyond sensory science, on the fields of marine biology, evolution and ecology, and on the design of remote sensing devices.