Within the past decade there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of oceans in the climate and biogeochemical cycles of our world. Biologically, the primary producers of the oceans play a major role in these effects. The 37th Brookhaven Symposium on Biology: Primary Productivity and Biogeochemical Cycles in the Sea, will provide a major synopsis of where we have come in this area of research in the past decade and will provide a forum for discussions on the future needs in biological and chemical oceanography.