Micronutrients are essential chemicals required by organisms in small quantities to perform various biogeochemical processes and regulate physiological functions of cells and organs. By enabling these processes, micronutrients support the health of organisms throughout life.

For humans, micronutrients typically take one of three forms: vitamins, trace elements, and dietary minerals. Human micronutrient requirements are in amounts generally less than 100 milligrams per day, whereas macronutrients are required in gram quantities daily. Deficiencies in micronutrient intake commonly result in malnutrition.

In ecosystems, micronutrients most commonly take the form of trace elements such as iron, strontium, and manganese. Micronutrient abundance in the environment greatly influences biogeochemical cycles at the microbial level which large ecological communities rely on to survive. For example, marine primary producers (also known as phytoplankton) are reliant upon bioavailable dissolved iron for photosynthesis. Secondary and tertiary producers in oceans are therefore also reliant on the presence of sufficient dissolved iron concentrations.

Naturally, micronutrients are transferred between reservoirs through processes like fluvial transport, aeolian processes, ocean circulation, volcanism, and biological uptake/transfer. Anthropogenic activities also alter the abundance of micronutrients in ecosystems. Industrial and agricultural practices can release trace metals into the atmosphere, waterways, and soils and deforestation can lead to higher trace metal-containing-dust transport into oceans.

The natural abundance of elements is dependent on their atomic number based on the process of nucleosynthesis such that elements with higher atomic numbers are typically less abundant than elements with low atomic numbers. Most micronutrients are trace elements with high atomic numbers, meaning they exist naturally in low concentrations. Notable exceptions to this rule are boron (atomic no. 5), manganese (atomic no. 25), and iron (atomic no. 26).

Primary producers are the main contributors to the incorporation of micronutrients into a community's chemical inventory. Consumers within an ecosystem are limited to the micronutrients in the tissue of the primary producers which they eat. Primary producers obtain their micronutrients from their surrounding abiotic environment and the recycling of organic matter in soils. For example, grasses take in iron from soils which animals rely upon for hemoglobin production.

The original source of most nutrients, including micronutrients, is the geological reservoir, also called the slow pool. Micronutrients trapped in rocks and minerals must first be broken down through physical or chemical weathering before they can enter the fast pool, meaning they cycle between reservoirs on shorter timescales. Micronutrients can physically exchange between reservoirs in various ways such as from terrestrial soils to oceans via aeolian transport or fluvial transport, from oceans to marine sediments via deposition of organic matter, and from sediments to the geologic reservoir via lithification. Alternatively, micronutrients can exit the geologic reservoir through tectonic processes such as through volcanism or hydrothermal vents.

Anthropogenic industry unintentionally injects micronutrients into various ecosystems across the globe. The addition of micronutrients into ecosystems can have both positive and negative impacts. In the face of climate change, the fertilization of oceans with iron has been proposed as a method of carbon sequestration; however, elevated levels of iron in high nutrient, low chlorophyll regions of the ocean can cause the production of harmful algal blooms which are toxic to both humans and marine life. Similarly, in lakes, isolated seas, and coastal bays or gulfs, addition of micronutrients can cause eutrophication leading to hypoxia, decreasing ecosystem health.