title: Evaluation of parameters of a plankton community's biological rhythms under the natural environment of the Black Sea using the Fourier transform method.
abstract: Night-time changes in bioluminescence intensity in the coastal area of the Black Sea were recorded. It was noted that the biomass of luminous organisms is closely correlated with the biomass of plankton and other pelagic organisms, including commercial pelagic fish. The parameters of plankton communities' basic biological rhythms were determined using the discrete Fourier transform method. These rhythms were manifest as spatial and temporal changes in the bioluminescence intensity. It was shown that changes in the bioluminescence intensity over a 14.0-h period were due to the duration of the light/dark cycles. By contrast, changes in bioluminescence intensity with periods of 4.7 and 2.8 h were due to the endogenous rhythms of the plankton community (feeding and cell division). An original method for evaluating of errors in the calculated periods of the biological rhythms was proposed. A strong correlation (r = 0.906) was observed between the measured and calculated values for the bioluminescence intensity, which provided support for the assumptions made.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Natural and Technical Systems, Sevastopol, Russia.
authors.forename: Ye B
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Mel'nikova
mesh_terms: D059038:Black Sea; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D049449:Luminescence; D010933:Plankton / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
keywords: biological rhythms; bioluminescence intensity; fourier transform; measuring window; periods; spectral components