The 30-year long Hawaiian Ocean Time Series has brought numerous insights into the biogeochemical processes at station ALOHA. We now know that particulate organic carbon export, or biological carbon pump processes show relatively consistent seasonal variations (e.g. summer export peaks driven by diatom blooms) whereas interannual differences are rather small. Upper layers of euphotic zone (above DCM) are characterized by chronically depleted nutrients and high light, and thus planktonic community are dominated by small prokaryotic Prochlorococcus, pico/nano-sized eukaryotic flagellates and certain nitrogen fixers. These functional groups together contribute to the local primary production and drive biogeochemical processes. In this presentation, a brief review of recent progresses made at station ALOHA to understand the complex biological processes with a focus on survival mechanisms coping with the local environment will be given. Particularly, emerging insights on small mixotrophic phytoplankton predators and their role in Prochlorococcus mortality, symbiotic relationship formed between nitrogen fixer and diatom, as well as the ubiquity of ‘giant’ viruses (NCLDVs) infecting phytoplankton and their potential ecological consequences will be addressed.