page_title: Sea spray
section_title: Microbial communities
hierarchical_section_title: Sea spray / Ecology / Microbial communities
caption_attribution_description: English: Ocean mist and spray
context_page_description: Sea spray refers to aerosol particles that are formed directly from the ocean, mostly by ejection into the atmosphere by bursting bubbles at the air-sea interface. Sea spray contains both organic matter and inorganic salts that form sea salt aerosol. SSA has the ability to form cloud condensation nuclei and remove anthropogenic aerosol pollutants from the atmosphere. Sea spray is directly responsible for a significant degree of the heat and moisture fluxes between the atmosphere and the ocean, affecting global climate patterns and tropical storm intensity. Sea spray also influences plant growth and species distribution in coastal ecosystems and increases corrosion of building materials in coastal areas.
context_section_description: Viruses, bacteria, and plankton are ubiquitous in sea water, and this biodiversity is reflected in the composition of sea spray.  Generally speaking, sea spray has slightly lower concentrations of microbes than the water it is produced from. However, the microbial community in sea spray is often distinct from nearby water and sandy beaches, suggesting that some species are more biased towards SSA transportation than others. Sea spray from one beach can contain thousands of operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Nearly 10,000 different OTUs have been discovered in sea spray just between San Francisco, CA and Monterey, CA, with only 11% of them found ubiquitously. This suggests that sea spray in every coastal region likely has its own unique assemblage of microbial diversity, with thousands of new OTUs yet to be discovered. Many of the more common OTUs have been identified to the following taxa: Cryptophyta (order), Stramenopiles (order) and OM60 (family). Many have even been identified to genus: Persicirhabdus, Fluviicola, Synecococcus, Vibrio, and Enterococcus.
  Scientists have conjectured a stream of airborne microorganisms circles the planet above weather systems but below commercial air lanes. Some of these peripatetic microorganisms are swept up from terrestrial dust storms, but most originate from the marine microorganisms in sea spray. In 2018 a team of scientists reported that hundreds of millions of viruses and tens of millions of bacteria are deposited daily on every square meter around the planet.
caption: Sea spray containing marine microorganisms can be swept high into the atmosphere. These airborne microorganisms may travel the globe before falling back to earth.
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