Chemical ecology tries to promote the ecological understanding of the origin, function and significance of natural chemical compounds that mediate interaction within and between organisms. In the last two decades, marine chemical ecology has been gaining momentum. It encompasses a broad interdisciplinary field with such different research fields as predator--prey interactions, competition, chemical communication, pathogen--host interactions, biosynthesis, reproduction, and the evolution of secondary metabolites. The understanding of these complex processes is fundamentally important to decipher the evolution and variation of marine communities. This applied research offers perspectives not only in the apprehension of marine life strategies, but also for the use of the discovered compounds in the pharmacy, medicine and the development of new technologies.

While in the past the discovery of new chemical compounds was the primary goal, the function and significance of these compounds is gaining more and more attention.