show Abstracthide AbstractAtmospheric deposition is an increasingly recognized important pathway of delivering N, P, Fe and other elements to the open ocean. Generally, aerosol deposition is considered beneficial to the microbial community in terms of the promotion of metabolic activities. RNA-based community profiling shows that the metabolically active community is more sensitive than the total community in response to aerosol addition. To identify the functional changes and their resulting ecological impacts, we performed metatranscriptomic profiling of microcosm aerosol addition experiments using surface water collected in the Western North Pacific Ocean.