Marine biogeochemical cycles in the context of "Hydrogen cycle"

All animals on Earth form associations with microorganisms, including protists, bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses. In the ocean, animal–microbial relationships were historically explored in single host–symbiont systems. However, new explorations into the diversity of marine microorganisms associating with diverse marine animal hosts is moving the field into studies that address interactions between the animal host and a more multi-member microbiome. The potential for microbiomes to influence the health, physiology, behavior, and ecology of marine animals could alter current understandings of how marine animals adapt to change, and especially the growing climate-related and anthropogenic-induced changes already impacting the ocean environment.

In the oceans, it is challenging to find eukaryotic organisms that do not live in close relationship with a microbial partner. Host-associated microbiomes also influence biogeochemical cycling within ecosystems with cascading effects on biodiversity and ecosystem processes. The microbiomes of diverse marine animals are currently under study, from simplistic organisms including sponges and ctenophores to more complex organisms such as sea squirts and sharks.

Macrobenthos consists of the organisms that live at the bottom of a water column and are visible to the naked eye. In some classification schemes, these organisms are larger than 1 mm; in another, the smallest dimension must be at least 0.5 mm. They include polychaete worms, pelecypods, anthozoans, echinoderms, sponges, ascidians, crustaceans.

The marine macrobenthos community is a critical component and reliable indicator of the biotic integrity of marine ecosystems, especially the intertidal ecosystems. On the one hand, macrobenthos plays a vital role in maintaining ecosystem functions, such as material cycling in sediments and energy flow in food webs. On the other hand, macrobenthos is relatively sedentary and therefore reflects the ambient conditions of sediments, in which many pollutants (e.g., heavy metals and organic enrichment) are ultimately partitioned.

The sea surface microlayer (SML) is the boundary interface between the atmosphere and ocean, covering about 70% of Earth's surface. With an operationally defined thickness between 1 and 1,000 μm (1.0 mm), the SML has physicochemical and biological properties that are measurably distinct from underlying waters. Recent studies now indicate that the SML covers the ocean to a significant extent, and evidence shows that it is an aggregate-enriched biofilm environment with distinct microbial communities. Because of its unique position at the air-sea interface, the SML is central to a range of global marine biogeochemical and climate-related processes.

The sea surface microlayer is the boundary layer where all exchange occurs between the atmosphere and the ocean. The chemical, physical, and biological properties of the SML differ greatly from the sub-surface water just a few centimeters beneath.