Light and its penetration are of great importance in the life of reservoirs. The life of plants and organisms depends on this: the farther the light passes into the water column, the deeper the plants will grow. But there are many "variables" to consider when studying light penetration.
Factors affecting light penetration
Light penetrates into the water column to a depth, while illumination depends on various external factors. For example, at sunset, less light passes under the layers of water than at noon, and in the north it penetrates worse than in the south, etc.
Water in reservoirs is never clean, it always contains different substances: soil, dust, remains of decaying organisms, silt, small animals and vegetation, air bubbles, gas. And with the addition of such factors as wind, convection currents, atmospheric phenomena, water turbidity increases.
Especiallylarge reservoirs get it from the rivers flowing into them. All of these particles absorb or attenuate light. Rays that encounter such obstacles on their way change and can be scattered to the sides. It depends on this whether light penetrates into the water column to a depth or not.
The most transparent water was recorded in the Sargasso Sea, where it reached sixty-six meters, and in the Sea of Azov - no more than twelve centimeters.
Sunbeam
It consists of visible and invisible spectra, infrared and ultraviolet being the latter. Water in the sea absorbs light rays in different ways. So at a depth of half a meter, only infrared radiation is absorbed, so the light at such a depth is white.
If you dive five meters, then other shades are added to the light: blue and green. The deeper the level, the more reds and yellows are absorbed, while the blues and greens remain. If you go down to a depth of fifty meters, the sea will turn blue.
One American scientist conducted a study without the use of various instruments to check whether light penetrates the water column to a depth or not. He was submerged in a special apparatus at 900 meters in the Sargasso Sea area. So at the level of 50 meters he saw water in green, 60 - in blue-green, 180 - pure blue, 300 m in black-blue, 580 - the light was barely visible, and the red and yellow rays most needed for aquatic organisms the mostfirst.
Light for vegetation waters
With the help of different devices, the rays can be fixed even in very deep places, but this is not enough for vegetation, photosynthesis needs more red light, hence the sparse vegetation at a depth of two hundred meters, even the transparent sea. In the B altic Sea, bottom flora extends at least twenty meters, and in the Mediterranean - one hundred and sixty.
An interesting fact is that the vegetation of the seas grows more evenly horizontally than on land - this indicates the same distribution of sunlight and the minerals necessary for them.
Whether light penetrates into the water column to a depth or not also affects the color of the animal world and plants. If in the upper layers the living creatures are colored in brown and red shades, then at the depths black and colorless animals predominate.
Although the sunlight does not penetrate the ocean water to the bottom, but the depth is not completely black without it. In that darkness, points of light come across - these are luminous fish that use their skill to attract prey. At such a depth, it is not the sun or small grains of its light that is a resource for existence: sulfur and oxygen, which are released from thermal solutions, are the source of life.
Light penetration into water and ice
From the above, it is clear that different particles delay light and its penetration into water, and even more so snow and ice in the winter season. So an ice layer of 50 centimeters will let in less than 10 percent of the light, and if it is also covered with snow, the penetration will be only 1 percent.
Beforehow deep the light penetrates into the thickness of Baikal
When studying the issue of the depth of penetration of light in Baikal, in 2012, scientists accidentally established the fact that the water “glows” in this lake, but this cannot be seen by human eyes, this is only confirmed by special devices.
It turns out that the water of this lake produces light in any place, but at depth its saturation decreases. Not far from the island called Olkhon, where the station is located, the fact of the minimum glow was established - one hundred photons. This phenomenon is associated with the purity of water, and its intensity - with the time of year.
From the middle of winter, the life of the "glow" seems to freeze, and then revives. At the time when the research was being carried out, the beginning of the revival fell on the sacrament of Baptism. The fact of the glow of water in this place is not well understood, it is yet to be scientists.
An earlier figure of 100 meters was put forward when investigating how deep the sunlight in this lake penetrates, but space research has shown that the bottom can be seen at a depth of 500 meters. From here it is assumed that the rays can penetrate up to 1000 meters. And this question is subject to extensive research today.
Deep-seaters claim that, having descended to 800 meters, you can still see daylight, and its disappearance completely when registered with a photographic plate occurs at 1500 meters.
