Likewise, discoveries of new community functions associated with discoveries of new species are unlikely to cease. Are more organisms---beyond the prochlorophytes, bacteria, and viruses---present but undiscovered, organisms that fix and provide a substantial portion of the primary production? Are such organisms present even in ``well-known'' shallow-water systems, analogous to underdescribed species diversity in such systems? Application of new sample designs and methods, of new sample-processing and analysis techniques, and of molecular tools for the identification of distinctive taxa, facilitates addressing these questions.
What does the novel discovery of ecosystems, and of new ecosystem functioning, mean for an improved understanding of marine biodiversity? Critical research questions focus upon the functional relationships between newly discovered systems and the systems around or between them. One example, noted earlier, is whether the whale skeleton community provides critical stepping stones between hydrothermal vent communities. And, at the functional level, how does the discovery of new and significant contributors to oceanic productivity---a new ocean carbon budget---affect understanding of global production, carbon cycling, and the potential impact of global climate change on life in the sea?