Conference and workshops Ecopath 30 years – Modelling ecosystem dynamics: beyond boundaries with EwE, 4-14 November 2014, Barcelona, Spain.-- 2 pages, 1 figureDeep-sea ecosystems need allochthonous energy for their functioning. Continuous sinking streams of particles and occasional, still unpredictable, point-like pulses of organic matter are the processes performing the required energy input. Productivity of the benthos is related with food availability or, more specifically, to marine snow input. Thus, as ocean waters have undergone a constant warming over the past century, the levels of primary productivity (and, by consequence, the marine snow input) have been observed to fluctuate with different patterns across the oceansWe thank the funding agencies and colleagues of the BIOFUN (CTM2007-28739-E) and PROMETEO (CTM2007-66316-C02) research projects, and the officers and crew of the R/V García del Cid and Sarmiento de Gamboa. ST was funded by a JAE-PRE-2008 pre-doctoral grant from CSIC, Spain, and co-financed by the European UnionPeer Reviewe