Final answer:
Yellow lights are typically used on special purpose buoys in marine navigation to indicate areas with special conditions or rules.
Step-by-step explanation:
The color yellow in marine navigation is typically reserved for special purpose buoys. These special purpose buoys may be used for a variety of reasons, such as indicating areas with special rules, military exercise zones, or areas under environmental protection.
While the report you're referring to by Abbott (1961) emphasizes the notable biological community that can attach to marine buoys, it does not directly address the question regarding light color. When we consider maritime signal color conventions, yellow lights are known to be used on special purpose buoys.
Vertically striped buoys, horizontally banded buoys, and spherical buoys each have different color schemes and patterns to convey specific navigational information, but yellow typically is not one of them.