Particulate organic carbon (POC) is operationally defined as all combustible, non-carbonate carbon that can be collected on a filter. The oceanographic community has historically used a variety of filters and pore sizes, most commonly 0.7, 0.8, or 1.0 μm glass or quartz fiber filters. The biomass of living zooplankton is intentionally excluded from POC through the use of a pre-filter or specially designed sampling intakes that repel swimming organisms. Sub-micron particles, including most marine prokaryotes, which are 0.2–0.8 μm in diameter, are often not captured but should be considered part of POC rather than dissolved organic carbon (DOC), which is usually operationally defined as < 0.2 μm. Typically POC is considered to contain suspended and sinking particles ≥ 0.2 μm in size, which therefore includes biomass from living microbial cells, detrital material including dead cells, fecal pellets, other aggregated material, and terrestrially-derived organic matter. Some studies further divide POC operationally based on its sinking rate or size, with ≥ 51 μm particles sometimes equated to the sinking fraction. Both DOC and POC play major roles in the carbon cycle, but POC is the major pathway by which organic carbon produced by phytoplankton is exported – mainly by gravitational settling – from the surface to the deep ocean and eventually to sediments, and is thus a key component of the biological pump.