Abstract
Skilful projection of the impacts of global changes on marine systems depends on better representation of the mechanisms that link processes across scales from the sub-microscopic to the oceanic. The diversity, complexity and range of scales over which the life histories of bacteria, primary producers and animals play out in the oceans makes this is a daunting challenge. However, a recent paper on the increasing abundance of picocyanobacteria in NE Atlantic shelf waters in summer (Schmidt et al. 2020) provides an example of our ability to observe and interpret across a huge range of scales.