How much Light energy would it require to run an underground Photosynthetic ecosystem?

I have a world that consists of hundreds of different caverns inside an earth-sized planet. Each of these many caverns consists of many different biomes, such as plains, Jungles,deserts,etc.

However since the plants and trees in these caverns are photosynthetic, I created a carnivorous light producing plant only found on the ceiling in these ecosystems to ensure the trees below survive.

Majority of the plant's mass is just a cluster of vines and roots that cling to ceiling but what makes it interesting is they grow strange bioluminisant bulbs. The Bulbs are 8 meters wide and are usually 50 to 20 meters away from each other. The color of these bulbs shift from white to blue depending on certain hours.

(You can see I'm trying to make a portray of day and night)

The Purpose of these bulbs is to attract Airbourne prey that rely on their own Bio-luminescence to attract mates. Once prey lands on the bulb and realizes it's a trap, their body is then absorbed into the bulb and kills the prey via suffocation. This usually happens in the "nighttime" when bulbs produce a blue or white light not bright enough to blind someone's eyes.

During the day, the bulbs release huge amounts of light and heat in order to steer away larger flying animals from consuming them, this in turn causes the plants in the bottom to rely to this bright light to grow. During this state, looking at them too long may cause blindness.

To sum it all up, how intense should the light of these bulbs be in order to sustain the plant-life below? And if so, how much prey should these bulbs consume in order to sustain enough energy to glow brightly for 24 hours?

posted almost 7 years ago

Red_Wasp‭

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