Sections and complex stations (MMBI map) made in the outfit 9-23 November 2013 on the research vessel "Dalnye Zelentsy": Kola transect – stations 1-23; random transects from Svalbard to the Kola Bay – stations 41-59; transect along the Kola Bay – stations 60-63. Source: MMBI

The procaryotic bacteria and archaea, as a result of their diversity and unique types of metabolism, are involved in the cycles of virtually all essential elements. Bacteria play an important role in for example the microbial loop, i.e. a trophic pathway in the marine microbial food web where dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is returned to higher trophic levels via the incorporation into bacterial biomass, and coupled with the classic food chain formed by