Bull Kelp Under Ultraviolet Light, Bandon, Oregon

Bull kelp, found lying on the beach at Bandon, Oregon, appears to glow bright red when under ultraviolet light. Bull kelp is an annual sea weed, which contains phycoerythrin, which aids with phosynthesis. It captures wavelenghts of light that chlorophyll does not absorb well. When the plant starts to decay, it no longer passes that energy to the chlorophyll, but reflects it instead. Ultraviolet light produces fluorescence, a type of photoluminescence, in which certain chemicals absorb light that is invisible to human eyes and emit some of it at a different wavelength that we can see.

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Bull kelp, found lying on the beach at Bandon, Oregon, appears to glow bright red when under ultraviolet light. Bull kelp is an annual sea weed, which contains phycoerythrin, which aids with phosynthesis. It captures wavelenghts of light that chlorophyll does not absorb well. When the plant starts to decay, it no longer passes that energy to the chlorophyll, but reflects it instead. Ultraviolet light produces fluorescence, a type of photoluminescence, in which certain chemicals absorb light that is invisible to human eyes and emit some of it at a different wavelength that we can see.