The Biogeochemistry of Marine Polysaccharides: Sources, Inventories, and Bacterial Drivers of the Carbohydrate Cycle

Polysaccharides are major components of macroalgal and phytoplankton biomass constitute a large fraction the organic matter produced degraded in ocean. Until recently, however, our knowledge marine polysaccharides was limited due to their great structural complexity, correspondingly complicated enzymatic machinery used by microbial communities degrade them, lack readily applied means isolate andcharacterize detail. Advances carbohydrate chemistry, bioinformatics, molecular ecology, microbiology have led new insights into structures polysaccharides, which they bacteria, ecology polysaccharide production decomposition. Here, we survey current knowledge, discuss recent advances, present conceptual model linking complexity abundance microbially driven mechanisms processing. We conclude highlighting specific future research foci that will shed light on this central but poorly characterized component carbon cycle.