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Updated: Sep 28, 2025

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Published on: January 31, 2025
Microbial metabolites in the marine carbon cycle
Mary Ann Moran1, Elizabeth B Kujawinski2, William F Schroer3
1Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA. mmoran@uga.edu.
Abstract:
One-quarter of photosynthesis-derived carbon on Earth rapidly cycles through a set of short-lived seawater metabolites that are generated from the activities of marine phytoplankton, bacteria, grazers and viruses. Here we discuss the sources of microbial metabolites in the surface ocean, their roles in ecology and biogeochemistry, and approaches that can be used to analyse them from chemistry, biology, modelling and data science. Although microbial-derived metabolites account for only a minor fraction of the total reservoir of marine dissolved organic carbon, their flux and fate underpins the central role of the ocean in sustaining life on Earth.
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