In this special issue papers resulting from the project “Marine biological production, organic aerosol particles and marine clouds: a Process Chain – MarParCloud” and closely related projects shall be aggregated. MarParCloud is a highly interdisciplinary project funded by the German Leibniz Society (https://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/en/about-us/leibniz-competition/projekte-2016/funding-line-2/), which aims to improve our knowledge on the nature, formation, transfer and effects of organic matter (OM) in the marine environment. To this end the biological formation of OM in the ocean, its accumulation in the sea surface microlayer (SML), the export to marine aerosol particles and, finally, the importance of OM for the formation of cloud droplets and ice crystals are investigated. Within MarParCloud several field and tank studies were performed to investigate ambient seawater, the SML, aerosol particles and cloud water as well as water and air samples obtained during artificial bubble experiments. Closely related campaigns comprise the EU project MARSU (“Advanced analytical and mass spectrometric techniques to study ocean-atmosphere interactions”) and the MILAN study (“sea-surface MIcroLAyer at Night”), focusing on diel dynamics of the uppermost layer of the ocean, as well as the cruise EMB184 “Aerosol” performed with the R/V Elisabeth Mann Borgese. In addition to results from these projects and campaigns, this special issue is open for all submissions concerning the cycling of OM in the marine environment with potential atmospheric implications.