ABSTRACT
During the course of the last two decades bioluminescence has been the subject of numerous reviews. The scope of the topic and the extent of the information that is becoming available necessitates that each review should tend to focus upon certain specific aspects and it is no longer appropriate to attempt a general overview. Previous authors in this series (Boden & Kampa, 1964; Tett & Kelly, 1973) have concentrated upon the ecological aspects of plankton luminescence, while a recent multi-author volume (Herring, 1978) has attempted to provide a compendium of information on all aspects of bioluminescence, continuing that achieved by E.Newton Harvey in his classic volume of 1952.
