The atmosphere is an important pathway by which both natural and anthropogenic material is transported from the continents to the coastal and open seas. Once deposited by atmospheric deposition (AD), atmospheric aerosol particles provide an external source of nutrients and pollutants to aqueous ecosystems. This in turn affects the production of organic matter (OM) by phytoplankton, alters CO₂ uptake and indirectly affects climate. The input of AD is particularly important in oligotrophic environments and is expected to increase in future scenarios of a warmer atmosphere with increased aerosol emissions and deposition rates. The sea surface microlayer (SML), the uppermost millimetre of the sea surface, which represents the natural interface region that serves as both a sink and a source of marine aerosols, hinders a number of global exchange processes between the ocean and the atmosphere. A progressive approach to understanding the chemical composition of the SML and thus, its role in global biogeochemistry can only be achieved by considering all the key components of this complex environment as an integrated whole. The temporal dynamics of the SML biology, as well as the concentrations of inorganic and organic constituents, allowed us to assess their sources and the nature of the enrichments taking place within the SML. The comprehensive insight into the concentrations of macro nutrients (N, P), trace metals (e.g. Cu, Pb, Cd, Ni, Zn, Co) and OM (including organic pollutants) in atmospheric samples, their transport history, source apportionment and deposition fluxes into the oligotrophic Adriatic Sea area will be presented. The deposition fluxes estimates show reasonable agreement between model calculations and measured data, and could be used for more general assessments of atmospheric inputs.

Sanja Frka Milosavljević, PhD, is a Senior Research Associate at the Division for marine and environmental research, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia. She received her PhD in Oceanology from the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia, in 2008 and conducted postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia under the Marie Curie FP7-PEOPLE-2011-COFUND project. She is currently leading four competitive projects aimed at assessing the impacts of atmospheric deposition on complex biochemical responses of oligotrophic systems, considering the importance of promoting and inhibiting effects on phytoplankton and the consequent altering in surface water chemistry, including the sea surface microlayer at the atmosphere-sea interface. Her research interests include sources, interactions and (trans)formation processes of atmospheric organic aerosols, characterisation of organic matter in different natural aquatic systems, atmospheric deposition, atmosphere-ocean exchange processes. She is a member of various national and international scientific organisations and is involved in teaching and supervising of graduate, PhD and postdoctoral students. She published 38 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, 2 book chapters, 43 other publications, and abstracts in proceedings of international and national meetings. She participated in 13 domestic and 25 international conferences and 6 international workshops and gave 10 invited talks outside conferences.