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The underwater visual environment

  • Chapter
The Visual System of Fish

Abstract

What does the term ‘vision’ mean when applied to non-human animals, and how is the structure and function of a visual system adaptive for the animal that possesses it? These fundamental questions drive the visual ecologist and differentiate her or him from the photoecologist, who is interested in general sensitivity problems. How these questions are attacked will depend on the interests and expertise of the investigator, but ultimately all information regarding the properties of a particular visual system must be referred to the nature of the photic environment, the interactions of targets with the ambient light field, and the relevant visual tasks of the organism. Perhaps nowhere has this approach been more successfully applied than in studies defining the processes driving the evolution of visual systems in aquatic organisms. It follows that the visual ecologist must not only understand the biology, biophysics and perceptual qualities of vision, but must also have a basic understanding of optical physics and those properties of the medium that can influence the visible light field. We shall start with a discussion of basic optical quantities and hydrologic optics as they relate to vision, and then concentrate on three areas that are currently receiving particular attention by ‘fish’ visual ecologists: the near-ultraviolet light field, the polarized light field, and time-dependent changes in the light field produced by oceanic waves.

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Authors
  1. Ellis R. Loew
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  2. William N. McFarland
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Optometry and Visual Science, City University, London, UK

    Ron Douglas

  2. Department of Pure and Applied Biology, Imperial College, London, UK

    Mustafa Djamgoz

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© 1990 Chapman and Hall

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Loew, E.R., McFarland, W.N. (1990). The underwater visual environment. In: Douglas, R., Djamgoz, M. (eds) The Visual System of Fish. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0411-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0411-8_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6672-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-0411-8

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