English: Role of phytoplankton on various compartments of the marine environment
These compartments include the atmospheric gas composition, inorganic nutrients, and trace element fluxes as well as the transfer and cycling of organic matter via biological processes. The photosynthetically fixed carbon is rapidly recycled and reused in the surface ocean, while a certain fraction of this biomass is exported as sinking particles to the deep ocean, where it is subject to ongoing transformation processes, e.g., remineralization.