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

在动物王国里，颜色与视觉密切相关。色觉在识别配偶或竞争对手，以及确定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线特性的背景下发展起来的；这些光谱特性确定了动物眼睛中有用的颜色受体阵列的潜在限制。海洋动物有时缺乏色觉，但在最复杂的形式中，一些甲壳类动物有多达12种光谱受体，远远超过任何已知的陆地动物。这个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。该结果将有助于回答如何从它们的许多光谱类型的受体的综合信息使它们能够利用海洋中的颜色视觉。本研究将为水生无脊椎动物与陆地色觉的比较及其在昆虫、鸟类和灵长类动物中的进化提供一个有价值的案例。它的影响很可能超越感官科学，涉及海洋生物学、进化和生态学领域，以及遥感设备的设计。

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.