Abstract.A number of coastal organisms (e.g., bivalves) are known as important consumers of particulate organic carbon (POC) in the sea. In this paper we present new evidence that they are also important consumers of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the colloidal size range down to about 0.2 μm in diameter. Those colloids play an important role in the global flux of carbon in the seas.We compare the uptake of colloidal DOC by marine bivalves of the North Sea and of the western Indian ocean.To measure this uptake we made use of colloidal melanin as an alternative way to measure the uptake of colloidal DOC
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